Beijing slams US plan to limit Hong Kong officers’ visas over Article 23 legislation, says transfer belongs in ‘dustbin of historical past’ – Cyber Tech

The executive company additionally took purpose at US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remarks that America was contemplating journey curbs for Hong Kong officers deemed “liable for the intensifying crackdown on rights and freedoms”.

“The related acts and deeds have confused proper and mistaken, stigmatised Hong Kong’s nationwide safety legislation … smeared the rule of legislation, democracy, freedom and human rights within the metropolis,” the spokesman for the workplace mentioned.

“It has grossly interfered with town’s affairs and China’s inside affairs, and critically tramples on the rules of worldwide legislation and primary norms of worldwide relations.

The workplace slammed the US for its “ordinary tactic” of releasing an annual coverage act report on Hong Kong, which it known as “one other despicable footnote of US hegemony and bullying” and mentioned the nation favored to “ask others to take drugs when it itself is getting sick”.

“The US is striving to stage a Hong Kong-related script made up of lies in an try to deceive the world for undeserved fame,” he mentioned.

“Little does it know that nobody has purchased into this annual farce. It is going to solely get boos and mock, and it ought to have been swept into the dustbin of historical past!”

The workplace spokesman burdened that Beijing would stay unfazed within the face of any exterior stress.

“Since historic occasions, the Chinese language individuals haven’t been afraid of ghosts or believed in evil. They’ve by no means been afraid of energy or stress,” he mentioned.

“Within the face of provocations, troubles and crafty ways by exterior forces, all Chinese language individuals, together with Hong Kong compatriots, is not going to bend their backs.”

The spokesman mentioned all “slander, noise, stress or sanctions” can be ignored, decrying such acts as a “waste of effort”.

“Utilizing Hong Kong points to stage a careless present of hypocrisy and its personal double requirements will solely overdraw the US’s little remaining face and credibility!” he added.

Blinken mentioned on Friday that he would as soon as once more certify Hong Kong as ineligible for particular consideration underneath US legislation that it had loved earlier than its handover to China on July 1, 1997, and had remained in place for greater than twenty years since.

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Hong Kong passes home nationwide safety legislation, fast-tracking laws shelved for two a long time

Hong Kong passes home nationwide safety legislation, fast-tracking laws shelved for two a long time

He criticised China for taking steady actions through the years in opposition to Hong Kong’s promised excessive diploma of autonomy, democratic establishments, in addition to rights and freedoms.

Blinken mentioned Hong Kong’s home nationwide safety legislation had “broad and vaguely outlined provisions relating to ‘sedition’, ‘state secrets and techniques’, and interactions with overseas entities”.

“These provisions might each be used to get rid of dissent inside Hong Kong and utilized outdoors its borders as a part of [China’s] ongoing marketing campaign of transnational repression,” he mentioned.

US to place new visa limits on Hong Kong officers in wake of Article 23

America’s coverage act for town, additionally known as the Hong Kong Relations Act, provides Washington discretion to deal with it individually from mainland China in areas equivalent to commerce and financial engagement.

Within the 2024 report printed Friday, the State Division mentioned China had taken “new actions that straight threaten US pursuits in Hong Kong”.

Some 84,000 People dwelling within the metropolis confronted “heightened threat of arrest, detention, expulsion or prosecution” in the event that they publicly criticised China, it added.

The report additionally acknowledged that among the 35 arrests the division claimed have been remodeled the previous yr, “primarily based on publicly accessible info” have been made “pursuant to the colonial-era statute on ‘sedition’ and the offences listed” within the 2020 nationwide safety legislation.

The State Division submits a report yearly to Congress as a part of the US Hong Kong Coverage Act that was enacted in 1992, together with the certification course of.