Hong Kong has become a center for financial crime as Beijing tightened its grip on the territory, US lawmakers said, highlighting the worsening ties between the former British colony and Washington.
Since Beijing imposed a National Security Law on Hong Kong in 2020, the territory “has shifted from a trusted global financial center to a critical player in the deepening authoritarian axis” of China, Iran, Russia and North Korea, the heads of the US House of Representatives’ Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) said in a letter to US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen.
The letter was signed by the committee chairman, Republican Representative John Moolenaar, and the panel’s top Democrat, Raja Krishnamoorthi.
Photo: AFP
The shift has raised questions over “whether longstanding US policy towards Hong Kong, particularly towards its financial and banking sector, is appropriate,” they said.
Hong Kong’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment yesterday.
The relationship between Hong Kong and the US has deteriorated over a crackdown on dissent that US officials say has eroded the rule of law and democratic rights.
US lawmakers have stepped up efforts to penalize the territory, although it remains unclear if those efforts would bear fruit. In September, the House passed a bill that could see the closure of Hong Kong’s economic and trade offices in the US. The measure still needs to be approved by the Senate and signed by the president to become law.
US president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said the offices are mouthpieces for the CCP. Hong Kong officials have strongly condemned the bill’s passage, with Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) saying US businesses would will suffer if it is passed.
In their letter, Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi said Hong Kong had become a “global leader” in illicit practices such as:
‧ Giving Russia access to prohibited Western technology
‧ Forming front companies for buying banned Iranian oil
‧ Helping with the trade of gold from Russia
‧ Running ships that conduct illegal trade with North Korea.
The letter also cited research that it said showed that about 40 percent of goods shipped to Russia from Hong Kong last year were on a “common high priority” list of items that the US and the EU use to focus sanctions enforcement.
Those items included “semiconductors and other technology that Russia most needs for its war in Ukraine,” the letter said.
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