President Donald Trump’s administration announced sanctions against 11 Chinese officials on Friday, including Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, Bloomberg reported.
The sanctions apply to certain members of the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and some Chinese companies. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listed seven of the officials the sanctions will hit, including Lam, Teresa Cheng, Erick Tsang, Zheng Yanxiong, Eric Chan, John Lee Ka-chiu and Chris Tang.
The U.S. says each played a role in enacting a recent national security law in Hong Kong that effectively ended its status as a Western-style democracy and placed it fully under the control of the CCP.
“This law, purportedly enacted to ‘safeguard’ the security of Hong Kong, is in fact a tool of CCP repression,” Pompeo said in a statement released to the press.
NEWS: The Trump admin is poised to impose sanctions on Chinese officials including CARRIE LAM. The new sanctions will be announced today. Will also target Chinese companies and Communist Party officials, sources tell me, @nwadhams and @jendeben.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) August 7, 2020
The news comes less than a day after Trump signed executive orders prohibiting transactions with mobile applications TikTok and WeChat, which are owned by Chinese companies ByteDance and Tencent respectively. Those orders will go into effect in 45 days, at which time the order says no U.S. transactions can be made with ByteDance regarding TikTok, nor with Tencent regarding WeChat. (RELATED: TikTok Pledges To Fight Political Misinformation, Foreign Interference Ahead Of 2020 Election)
“The spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China (China) continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” both orders read.
The text of the order initially spread concern that the order would affect Tencent’s other subsidiaries as well. Tencent owns Riot Games and has a 40% stake in Epic Games, the companies behind some of the most popular video games in the country, including League of Legends, Valorant and Fortnite.
White House officials clarified that the order only prohibits transactions with ByteDance and Tencent that are related to either TikTok or WeChat.