Washington should suspend the special economic status granted to Hong Kong if Beijing deploys its military forces in the city, a congressional body warned on Thursday, along with a range of other recommendations addressing perceived threats the US faces as a result of its engagement with China.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which has a mandate to advise US lawmakers on the implications of Washington\u2019s economic relationship with Beijing, also called for US export control measures on mainland Chinese companies to be extended to their Hong Kong subsidiaries.
Hong Kong issues aside, the body warned about continued investment by US companies in China because of increasing vulnerabilities they face in terms of data and intellectual property protection and said that Chinese companies listed on American stock exchanges should abide by the same disclosure rules as other firms.
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According to the commission\u2019s charter, its recommendations are meant \u201cfor action by Congress or the President, or both\u201d, but those authorities are not obliged to act on them.
\nProtesters sit near barricades with supplies of nails to throw against the police at Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE
\nProtesters sit near barricades with supplies of nails to throw against the police at Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE
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\nReflecting the broad ideological and military threats that its members say China poses for the US, the commission took Beijing to task for what it characterised as an attack on democracy in Hong Kong and on the mainland as well as a \u201ccampaign of cultural extermination\u201d against the country\u2019s Uygur and other Muslim minorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there were flickers of opening up in China, they have been firmly extinguished
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\u201cIf there were flickers of opening up in China, they have been firmly extinguished,\u201d commission chairwoman Carolyn Bartholomew said in a news conference in Washington. \u201cIt is for this reason that we are making what we view as an important change in our report this year. We are now referring to Xi Jinping using the title by which he derives his true authority, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.\u201d
\u201cGiving the unearned title of president to a leader who insists on the superiority of socialism, and who is overseeing a wide-ranging campaign to root out China\u2019s democratic impulses lends a veneer of democratic legitimacy to the CCP and Xi\u2019s authoritarian rule,\u201d she explained.
The commission\u2019s recommendations for tougher economic measures against Hong Kong follow China\u2019s call for a tougher crackdown on the semi-autonomous city\u2019s continuing, and increasingly violent, anti-government protests that are now in their sixth month.
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\u201cHong Kong\u2019s status as a separate customs territory, distinct from mainland China, is under pressure,\u201d the commission, which was established in 2000 as part of Washington\u2019s acceptance of Beijing into the World Trade Organisation, said in its annual report.
\n\u201cBeijing\u2019s more assertive imposition of sovereign control over Hong Kong undermines the \u2018high degree of autonomy\u2019 that underwrites trust in the Hong Kong government\u2019s ability to restrict sensitive US technologies from being diverted to mainland China,\u201d it added.
\nAmong the five recommendations put forth by the commission, Congress should \u201cenact legislation stating that all provisions and the special status of Hong Kong included in the US-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 will be suspended in the event that China\u2019s government deploys People\u2019s Liberation Army or People\u2019s Armed Police forces to engage in armed intervention in Hong Kong\u201d.
\nIs Beijing ready to step in to stop Hong Kong protests?
\nThe report highlights a gathering consensus in Washington that years of engagement with Beijing has not yielded, and will not lead to, the kind of political reform that policymakers had envisioned when officials ties between the two countries were re-established in 1979.
\n\u201cThe Commission has been analyzing the many dimensions in which China poses challenges to the US for many years,\u201d said Bonnie Glaser, senior advisor for Asia at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. \u201cIt is probably fair to say that their assessment of the nature of the Chinese threat preceded what has become a significant shift in attitudes toward China in the United States, and the adoption of a tougher policy by the Trump administration.\u201d
\n\u201cI think many of the Commission\u2019s recommendations will resonate with Members of Congress and Trump administration officials,\u201d Glaser said.
\nOne of the most important elements of Hong Kong\u2019s special status has been the fact that it is considered a separate customs and trading zone from China.
\nThat has meant, for instance, that trade war tariffs do not apply to exports from Hong Kong.
\nUnder the 1992 law, the US president can issue an executive order suspending elements of Hong Kong\u2019s special status if the president determines that the territory is \u201cnot sufficiently autonomous\u201d from Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report also called for congressional action directing the Department of Commerce to extend export control measures now in place for mainland China to subsidiaries of Chinese companies established or operating in Hong Kong.
\nAlso on export control, the commission suggested that Congress hold hearings examining technologies subject to export controls for mainland China, but not controlled for Hong Kong.
\n\u201cThese hearings should request that the US Department of Commerce\u2019s Bureau of Industry and Security and the US consulate general in Hong Kong assess the effectiveness of current export controls in preventing unauthorised transshipment to the mainland or other destinations,\u201d it stated.
\nXi Jinping again backs Hong Kong police use of force in stopping unrest
\nThe US State Department should also develop a series of specific benchmarks for measuring Hong Kong\u2019s maintenance of a \u201chigh degree of autonomy\u201d from Beijing, the report noted.
\n\u201cSuch benchmarks should employ both qualitative and quantitative measurements to evaluate the state of Hong Kong\u2019s autonomy in the State Department\u2019s annual Hong Kong Policy Act Report,\u201d it noted.
\nDespite the hawkish rhetoric, however, the report advised US lawmakers to continue their outreach with Hong Kong officials, adding: \u201cMembers of Congress \u2026 should also continue to express support for freedom of expression and the rule of law in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, the US House of Representatives unanimously passed three pieces of legislation supporting the pro-democracy protests.
\nThe Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the most consequential of the bills, would put the former British colony\u2019s special treatment by the United States under tighter scrutiny. It has not been passed by the Senate yet.
\nThe commission is not only concerned about China\u2019s military in Hong Kong.
\nProtesters vow to stick with new strategy of increased weekday actions
\nJames Talent, another commission member and a former US senator from Missouri, said that Beijing is using the People\u2019s Liberation Army, in conjunction with the foothold China has gained in European countries through its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative projects, to weaken the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) and overall EU unity.
\nIn particular, China is trying to exploit tensions between southeastern European countries and the rest of the bloc to pull those countries more closely into Beijing\u2019s orbit, he contended.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s now clear that Beijing intends to make the PLA a global expeditionary force,\u201d Talent said. \u201cOne of the reasons is because they have global interests and they intend to use the PLA among other tools to protect those interests in places like Europe. \u2026 This year we dealt more with the hard-power end of that.\u201d
\nHong Kong protests: government under fire across political spectrum for inaction
\nCommission members also spend much of the briefing warning that some Chinese companies listed on US exchanges enjoy less stringent reporting requirements, presenting a significant financial threat.
\n\u201cAmerican investors are possibly at risk of making investment decisions that are not based on accurate information,\u201d said Robin Cleveland, the commission\u2019s vice-chair, said.
\nMichael Wessel, a commission member since its formation, said that China\u2019s current economic slowdown magnifies this risk.
\n\u201cAs China\u2019s economic slowdown continues, its need for capital is going to expand and that\u2019s something that we\u2019re going to have to take into account because that may very well enhance the risk profile,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is about being compliant with the original Securities and Exchange Act.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington should suspend the special economic status granted to Hong Kong if Beijing deploys its military forces in the city, a congressional body warned on Thursday, along with a range of other recommendations addressing perceived threats the US faces as a result of its engagement with China. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which has a mandate to advise… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3745,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744\/revisions\/3745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}