Last week, President Donald Trump announced measures that could rewrite Hong Kong’s relationship with the US. The territory now appears to be on the cusp of having its status in the world change more fundamentally than it did with the handover from Britain in 1997.
Two weeks ago, Beijing announced it would legislate a new national security law and impose it on Hong Kong by decree, bypassing the city’s duly elected legislature in flagrant disregard of the “one country, two systems” arrangement under which Hong Kong has been governed.
In response, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, reported to Congress under the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act that Hong Kong no longer warranted treatment different from the rest of China, stating: “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China.”
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Finally, last Friday, as a consequence of Pompeo’s certification, Trump announced that he would be directing his administration “to begin the process of eliminating policy exemptions that give Hong Kong different and special treatment”.
As dramatic as the announcement was, Trump did not set out any specific measures: nothing has yet changed in the US-Hong Kong relationship. As such, there is still room for compromise, from both Beijing and Washington. However, the current environment does not suggest that compromise is in the air, and Trump’s statement laid the groundwork and foreshadowed the White House’s probable next steps.
Many observers have wondered if the US might not end up hurting the very people they were supposedly trying to help: the people of Hong Kong.
Source: Hong Kong’s own leaders have sacrificed its autonomy | Antony Dapiran
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