Pompeo: Hong Kong No Longer Warrants Special Treatment Compared to Mainland China

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – On Thursday, China’s legislature passed national security, anti-sedition laws that will affect Hong Kong in such a way as to suppress protests against the central government. In anticipation of the widely publicized move, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday that Hong Kong “does not continue to warrant” special US treatment as compared to mainland China.

The new Chinese law expands Beijing’s powers to ban “any acts or activities” that it considers a danger to China’s national security, including, the Guardian reported, “separatism, subversion, and terrorism – charges often used in mainland China to silence dissidents and other political opponents.”

Explaining why Hong Kong can no longer expect special treatment from the US, Pompeo said in a statement Wednesday: “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground. While the United States once hoped that free and prosperous Hong Kong would provide a model for authoritarian China, it is now clear that China is modeling Hong Kong after itself.”

“Hong Kong and its dynamic, enterprising, and free people have flourished for decades as a bastion of liberty, and this decision gives me no pleasure,” Pompeo added. “But sound policymaking requires a recognition of reality.”

Referring to the years in which Hong Kong has struggled under mainland Chinese rule, pro-democracy legislator Claudia Mo told the Guardian: “It is definitely the start of a new but sad chapter for Hong Kong. Hong Kong as we knew it is finally dead.”

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