US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notified Congress on Wednesday that the US administration no longer regards Hong Kong as "autonomous", threatening to withdraw Hong Kong's preferential trade and financial status that it has enjoyed.
Pompeo's move is the latest addition to the list of threats the US administration has issued against China.
On Sunday, White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien said that China's proposed national security legislation for Hong Kong could lead to US sanctions and jeopardize Hong Kong's status as a financial hub. "It looks like, with this national security law, they're going to basically take over Hong Kong," O'Brien said.
Such remarks are most strange. What exactly does O'Brien mean? China resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. Beijing has always maintained that, even though the United Kingdom had ruled over Hong Kong since 1841, Hong Kong has always been part of China. The Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 stipulates:"The Government of the People's Republic of China declares that to recover the Hong Kong area (including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, hereinafter referred to as Hong Kong) is the common aspiration of the entire Chinese people, and that it has decided to resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong with effect from July 1, 1997."
O'Brien went on: "And if they do,...Secretary (of State Mike) Pompeo will likely be unable to certify that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy, and if that happens, there will be sanctions that will be imposed on Hong Kong and China." This could, then, jeopardize the territory's special status under US law, which would hurt Hong Kong's status as a global financial center.
O'Brien and Pompeo certainly know that the high degree of autonomy is built on the principle of "one country, two systems", and that this must stand on the foundation of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The Basic Law is a contract. The Basic Law had gone through years of consultation before its enactment in 1990, and went into effect on July 1, 1997. Article 1 of the Basic Law stipulates that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China. Article 23 says:"The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies."
Source: China Daily
