US lawmakers urge Antony Blinken to slap sanctions on Hong Kong, Chinese officials for activists’ arrest warrants

The chairs of two bipartisan congressional panels are urging America’s top diplomat to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials involved in issuing arrest warrants and bounties last week on five opposition figures in the former British colony.

In a letter dated December 19, the top Democrats and Republicans on the House select committee on China and on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to determine by January 19 whether seven Hong Kong-based officials were eligible for sanctions under existing law or executive order.

Officials targeted by the panels included the city’s justice minister, Paul Lam Ting-kwok; Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu Chak-yee; Director of Public Prosecutions Maggie Yang Mei-kei; Senior Superintendent of Police Bruce Hung Ngan; Director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security Dong Jingwei; and assistant police commissioners Margaret Chiu Wing-lan and Dick Wong Chung-chun.

Lam, Siu and Yang were also named as targets in a sanctions bill introduced in November by Republican congresswoman Young Kim, chair of the Indo-Pacific subcommittee on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“The Hong Kong authorities’ egregious attempt to intimidate and silence US nationals engaged in peaceful political activism in the United States is outrageous and cannot be met with inaction,” said the letter signed by Republican congressmen Mike Gallagher and Chris Smith, along with Democratic congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and Democratic senator Jeff Merkley.

The lawmakers also urged Blinken to work with Congress to combat transnational repression, a term typically referring to the targeting of diaspora by governments.

In a statement on Wednesday, Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, called Hong Kong’s issuance of warrants for “anti-China rioters” a “necessary and legitimate act that is in line with the international law and customary practice”.

“The US and the UK by endorsing and supporting these people have exposed their ill intention of destabilising Hong Kong,” he said in the statement.

The Hong Kong trade office in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In July, the Hong Kong government accused eight opposition figures of violating the city’s national security law and issued an HK$1 million bounty for each arrest. On December 14, they added five more people to the list, including US citizen Joey Siu.

Last week, Blinken condemned the issuance of the bounties.

The State Department also last week issued a statement lambasting the ongoing Hong Kong criminal trial of Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper. The former media tycoon is charged under the national security law with colluding with foreign forces.