Pompeo: 'Hong Kong does not continue to warrant' special US treatment amid China crackdown

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took a milestone step toward stripping Hong Kong of the special status that for decades has governed economic relations with the United States, citing Chinese encroachments on the territory.

“No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground,” Pompeo said Wednesday. “While the United States once hoped that free and prosperous Hong Kong would provide a model for authoritarian China, it is now clear that China is modeling Hong Kong after itself.”

That announcement came just days after Chinese Communist Party officials said that they intend to expand Beijing’s ability to restrict political protests in the former British colony through a national security law that local dissidents say will doom Hong Kong’s traditional freedoms. The specter of that anti-sedition legislation spurred Pompeo to conclude “that Hong Kong does not continue to warrant” special treatment compared to territory controlled more directly by the mainland Chinese regime.

“Hong Kong and its dynamic, enterprising, and free people have flourished for decades as a bastion of liberty, and this decision gives me no pleasure,” Pompeo said. “But sound policymaking requires a recognition of reality.”

Pompeo offered that assessment of Hong Kong’s diminishing autonomy pursuant to a law passed last year, which congressional China hawks had hoped would deter Beijing from cracking down on the territory. The de facto city-state was wracked by political crisis for much of 2019 as protesters took to the streets in opposition to an extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kongers to be sent to mainland Chinese courts based on flimsy evidence.

Hong Kong’s special status has been contingent on Beijing’s respect for the “one country, two systems” policy that Chinese and British officials negotiated before the United Kingdom relinquished control of the territory. That pact, paired with U.S. privileges provided under the 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act, was supposed to guarantee that Hong Kong could continue as a capitalist society, largely free of Chinese Communist Party rule, but Chinese officials have portrayed the protesters as terrorists.

“First, no state will allow any activities that endanger its national security on its own territory,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday. “The U.S. itself has enacted dozens of laws on national security in an effort to build an impregnable fortress of its own national security. However, it has interfered in China's national security legislation and even attempted to drill a hole in China's national security network.”

Pompeo’s certification does not end Hong Kong’s special status on its own, as that revocation requires an order from President Trump. Some U.S. analysts worry that taking the privileges will drive Hong Kong further into China’s control, but local dissidents have also observed that it would harm China.

“A lot of people in Hong Kong are very angry, and they actually actively call for the United States to cancel the Hong Kong Policy Act,” Hong Kong opposition lawmaker Dennis Kwok said last week. “This is almost like a nuclear option which, once you use it, everyone will get hurt and it will be very hard to build Hong Kong back up again.”