China may strike back
HK could impose tariffs on American goods
China may strongly retaliate if the US moves to add pressure on and intervene in China’s internal affairs as it passed a decision to make the National Security Law for Hong Kong, experts said on Thursday. Measures could include punishing US companies involved in anti-China activities to impact the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and shutting down US intelligence agencies in Hong Kong, experts said.
As the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, adopted draft decision on Hong Kong national security legislation on Thursday, some politicians in the US have used hawkish and threatening rhetoric to threaten China.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday (US time) that he has reported to US Congress that “Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China.”
In response to the US Chamber of Commerce’s statement that the law could undermine the city’s status as a business hub, a HKSAR spokesperson said on Thursday, “Any unilateral change of US policy toward Hong Kong would create a negative impact on relations between the two sides and harm the US’ own interests.”
Experts interviewed by the Global Times said that the US threats will not frighten China as it has accumulated rich experience in countering the US’ unreasonable crackdown.
“China may move to impose sanctions on US companies helping anti-China US politicians in hurting China, and may shut down US intelligence agencies in Hong Kong to deal a blow to US politicians spreading anti-China policies,” He Weiwen, a former senior trade official and an executive council member of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, told the Global Times on Thursday.
He said that Hong Kong could impose tariffs on imported US products.
For the past decade, the US’ trade surplus with Hong Kong has been the biggest among all its trading partners, totaling $297 billion from 2009-18. US exports of goods and services to Hong Kong as well as Hong Kong’s direct investments in the US supported some 210,000 US jobs.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that the US is working on a “strong” response to the planned national security laws for Hong Kong, though he did not elaborate, Reuters reported.
“In fact, the US aims to use the law as an excuse to produce chain effects in separating China, dragging down the country’s economy and weakening its global influence. Amid escalating tensions, there is no need for China to be self-constrained,” Mei Xinyu, an expert close to China’s commerce ministry, told the Global Times on Thursday.
China has plenty of countermeasures, Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing who is close to the Chinese government, told the Global Times.
“Different from the US crackdown, China has made thorough calculations and considerate evaluations for the effects and impacts of every countermeasure in order to make the counter-strike most effective,” Gao said.
He noted that China may not rule out measures against US service industries including culture, tourism and people-to-people exchanges.