WASHINGTON: The USA on Friday warned companies of rising dangers working in Hong Kong, saying that routine actions may run afoul of the monetary hub’s new nationwide safety rules.
China had agreed to a “One Nation, Two Techniques” method for Hong Kong earlier than the territory was handed over from Britain in 1997.
However Beijing has clamped down since mass protests in 2019, with Hong Kong’s opposition-free legislature in March passing an ordinance that carries life imprisonment for crimes together with treason and revolt.
Updating a enterprise advisory first issued in 2021, the State Division and different US companies warned of “new and heightened dangers” for companies working in Hong Kong.
“The vaguely outlined nature of the regulation and former authorities statements and actions elevate questions on dangers related to routine actions,” it stated of the brand new Article 23 regulation.
Such routine actions may embrace analysis on authorities insurance policies and sustaining connections with native officers, journalists and non-governmental organizations, it stated.
The advisory additionally stated variations had been narrowing between Hong Kong and the mainland Folks’s Republic of China.
“Beneath comparable legal guidelines to these lately enacted in Hong Kong, PRC authorities in mainland China seem to have broad discretion to deem a variety of paperwork, information, statistics or supplies to be state secrets and techniques and to detain and prosecute international nationals for alleged espionage,” it stated.
Greater than 300 folks have been arrested underneath an preliminary 2020 safety regulation. In keeping with the State Division, they embrace one US citizen.
The USA has repeatedly warned that Beijing-led safety rules are placing in danger the openness that allowed Hong Kong to flourish as a buying and selling hub.
Hong Kong chief John Lee has defended the brand new ordinance as a transfer to stop violence following the mass demonstrations of 2019.
China had agreed to a “One Nation, Two Techniques” method for Hong Kong earlier than the territory was handed over from Britain in 1997.
However Beijing has clamped down since mass protests in 2019, with Hong Kong’s opposition-free legislature in March passing an ordinance that carries life imprisonment for crimes together with treason and revolt.
Updating a enterprise advisory first issued in 2021, the State Division and different US companies warned of “new and heightened dangers” for companies working in Hong Kong.
“The vaguely outlined nature of the regulation and former authorities statements and actions elevate questions on dangers related to routine actions,” it stated of the brand new Article 23 regulation.
Such routine actions may embrace analysis on authorities insurance policies and sustaining connections with native officers, journalists and non-governmental organizations, it stated.
The advisory additionally stated variations had been narrowing between Hong Kong and the mainland Folks’s Republic of China.
“Beneath comparable legal guidelines to these lately enacted in Hong Kong, PRC authorities in mainland China seem to have broad discretion to deem a variety of paperwork, information, statistics or supplies to be state secrets and techniques and to detain and prosecute international nationals for alleged espionage,” it stated.
Greater than 300 folks have been arrested underneath an preliminary 2020 safety regulation. In keeping with the State Division, they embrace one US citizen.
The USA has repeatedly warned that Beijing-led safety rules are placing in danger the openness that allowed Hong Kong to flourish as a buying and selling hub.
Hong Kong chief John Lee has defended the brand new ordinance as a transfer to stop violence following the mass demonstrations of 2019.
