China announced on Tuesday, June 30, " retaliation " for Washington's decision to ban exports of sensitive defense equipment to Hong Kong due to a controversial national security law that Beijing imposed on the territory.
Read also: Hong Kong: controversial national security law passed
Ignoring Western calls, the national parliament voted this text which comes a year after the start of the monster demonstrations in the former British colony against the influence of the central government. Washington accuses China of having questioned its international commitments and the principle " One country, two systems " which granted the territory of 7.5 million inhabitants a large autonomy since its handover by London in 1997.
To protest against Beijing's takeover of the territory, Washington announced Monday that it will end its exports of sensitive defense equipment to Hong Kong. " The United States will never succeed in hampering China's efforts to advance Hong Kong's national security laws," Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for Chinese diplomats, told reporters.
Hong Kong preferential status potentially challenged
This measure concerns American defense armaments and equipment, the export of which requires a green light from the State Department and should not be the subject of opposition by Congress. " We can no longer distinguish between the export of this material to Hong Kong or to the rest of China, " justified in a statement the head of American diplomacy, Mike Pompeo.
The US government will also " take steps to impose, with respect to Hong Kong, the same restrictions on US defense and dual-use civil or military technologies it imposes on China ." President Donald Trump had already paved the way for a questioning of the preferential status enjoyed by Hong Kong with the United States.
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