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US-China relations
WorldUnited States & Canada

US President Donald Trump signs Hong Kong Autonomy Act, and ends the city’s preferential trade status

  • New law is the latest salvo from a united Washington as it retaliates against Beijing for further eroding Hong Kong’s autonomy
  • The executive order means ‘Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China’, the US president says

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US President Donald Trump arriving at the news conference Tuesday in the Rose Garden at the White House, at which he announced new measures against China over its actions against Hong Kong. Photo: Reuters
Owen Churchill

US President Donald Trump took two actions against China in response to Beijing’s moves on Hong Kong on Tuesday, signing an executive order ending the city’s preferential trade treatment, and enacting a bill that would require sanctions against foreign individuals and banks for contributing to the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy.

“Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China,” Trump said in a news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House. “No special privileges, no special economic treatment, and no export of sensitive technologies.”

The latest move by Trump could open up Hong Kong to the tariffs his administration has slapped on Chinese exports over the course of the trade war that has raged between Washington and Beijing for the past two years.

The latest salvos in Washington’s retaliation over Beijing’s imposition of a sweeping national security law on the city, the executive order and Trump’s signing of the Hong Kong Autonomy Act came shortly before a deadline for the US leader to sign or veto the legislation.

Introduced in late May, the bill breezed through both chambers of Congress in a handful of weeks – a quick turnaround in any congressional session, much less one dominated by coronavirus relief bills and police reform legislation as well as the looming fall elections.
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