Trump plans China sanctions and pulls out of WHO
WASHINGTON — Strongly admonishing the Chinese government, President Donald Trump announced Friday that the United States was “terminating” its relationship with the World Health Organization and threatened to revoke some of Hong Kong’s longtime financial benefits to sanction China for its crackdown on the semiautonomous territory.
Reading from teleprompters in the Rose Garden, Trump blasted China broadly for a “pattern of misconduct.” He reiterated his longstanding accusations that it has fleeced the United States economically, ignored global maritime treaties and caused the coronavirus pandemic — complaints that have become central to his reelection campaign.
“The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government,” Trump declared.
Though the White House had called his appearance a news conference, the president left after delivering the prepared statement without taking questions, which probably would have focused on the national outrage and urban unrest over the killing of African American George Floyd by a white policeman in Minneapolis earlier this week.
Trump sought to build anticipation for his threat to punish Beijing’s increasingly heavy-handed approach to Hong Kong by teasing it earlier in the day with a tweet simply saying “CHINA!” However, his rhetoric against Beijing was stronger than the steps he took or threatened, experts on U.S.-China relations said.
The president suggested that the United States would alter or terminate preferences for Hong Kong on trade, visas, taxes and tariffs — all of which have been contingent on Beijing respecting Hong Kong’s autonomy in the years since it reclaimed the island territory from Britain in 1997. Those preferences are of great value to the government, businesses and investors on mainland China, which otherwise would not benefit from them.
“Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to warrant the special treatment we have afforded the territory since the handoff,” Trump said. His administration would “begin the process of eliminating policy exceptions,” he said, without offering any details.
He also threatened to sanction officials deemed to be “smothering” the rights of people in Hong Kong. “China claims it is protecting national security, but the truth is Hong Kong was secure and prosperous as a free society,” Trump said.
Caught between hawkish advisers who wanted tough restrictions on China and moderates more concerned about maintaining trade relations, Trump appeared to stake out a path down the middle.
His open-ended language, while leaving him plenty of room to maneuver, went further than some analysts expected in threatening to curtail Hong Kong’s economic privileges given Trump’s record in foreign policy of giving priority to business transactions and all but ignoring democratic values and human rights.
Yet in stopping short of taking immediate harsh actions, he seemed to accept that those could devastate the enclave and damage hundreds of Americanowned businesses there, and also ratchet up tensions with Beijing that could jeopardize the so-called Phase 1 trade deal the U.S. and China recently signed, as well as future trade talks.