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The US has said it is taking steps to impose new visa restrictions on Hong Kong officials after 45 of the city’s most prominent pro-democracy advocates were sentenced to prison on Tuesday.
US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement on Tuesday that the US “strongly condemns” the sentences meted out in Hong Kong’s largest national security case, which ranged from four years and two months to 10 years.
“The 45 defendants sentenced today were aggressively prosecuted, and many now face life-altering imprisonment simply for their peaceful participation in political activities which are protected under the Basic Law of Hong Kong,” Miller said.
“In response, the Department of State is taking steps to impose new visa restrictions on multiple Hong Kong officials responsible for implementation of the [national security law].”
The democrats were convicted over their roles in an unofficial primary election that aimed to help the pan-democrat camp secure a controlling majority in upcoming elections for the legislature.
A panel of three, handpicked national security judges ruled that the democrats had intended to abuse their constitutional powers to indiscriminately veto the government budget and force the chief executive to resign if they had indeed won a majority.
In a statement issued on Tuesday night, Chief Executive John Lee said that the democrats’ ultimate goal had been “to undermine, destroy or overthrow the existing political system and structure of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.”
Lee, who is among multiple Hong Kong and Chinese officials already hit with US sanctions, has previously called them “barbaric” and said they had no legal basis in Hong Kong. Though, in October 2022, he also said: “We will just laugh off the so-called sanctions.”
HKFP has reached out to the Chief Executive’s Office for comment.
Former US president Donald Trump’s administration in 2020 announced sanctions on 11 people it said were responsible “for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly of the citizens of Hong Kong.”
Among them were Carrie Lam, who was chief executive at the time; Eric Chan, who was then the secretary general of the powerful Committee for Safeguarding National Security before becoming chief secretary for the administration under Lee; former police commissioner Chris Tang, who is security chief in Lee’s administration; and Lee, who was security chief at the time.
The move blocked them from owning property or other assets in the US, and also criminalised any US financial transactions with them.
Lee, who was in Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, did not attend the trade and investment meeting in the US last year following a campaign to bar him from the event, and reports the White House had snubbed him due to the sanctions he faces.
Finance minister Paul Chan – the only one of Hong Kong’s top three officials who has not been hit with US sanctions – attended the San Francisco forum instead, with Lee citing “scheduling issues.”
The US State Department on Tuesday said it would pursue sanctions under its Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the secretary of state to bar anyone “whose entry or proposed activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
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