24 Chinese officials punished by U.S.

SEOUL — The United States punished 24 Chinese officials on Wednesday for undermining Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms, acting days before the first scheduled meeting of senior Chinese and U.S. diplomats since President Joe Biden took office.

In diplomatic terms, the timing of the action was intentional, continuing a testy start to relations between the Biden administration and China after a tumultuous four years under former President Donald Trump.

The State Department announced that it would impose financial sanctions on a raft of officials over an issue that Beijing has repeatedly said is an internal political matter. Earlier sanctions imposed by the Trump administration had barred the same officials from traveling to the United States and frozen their assets in the country.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is visiting Japan and South Korea, said the move followed China’s latest effort to erode Hong Kong’s autonomy by rewriting the territory’s election laws in Beijing and ramming the changes through its pliant Communist Party-controlled legislature.

“This action further undermines the high degree of autonomy promised to people in Hong Kong and denies Hong Kongers a voice in their own governance,” Blinken said in a statement, referring to the electoral overhaul.

At the start of a meeting with South Korea’s foreign minister Wednesday, Blinken mentioned China in the same breath as Myanmar, North Korea and other countries in which he said ruling governments are threatening democracy and stability.

“China is using coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undercut democracy in Taiwan, abuse human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet and assert maritime claims in the South China Sea that violate international law,” Blinken told the foreign minister, Chung Eui-yong.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and Blinken are scheduled to meet the top Chinese diplomats, Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi, in Alaska beginning Thursday.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, said Wednesday that the latest round of Hong Kong sanctions “fully exposed the sinister intentions of the United States to interfere in China’s internal affairs.”