The administrative agency also took aim at US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remarks that America was considering travel curbs for Hong Kong officials deemed “responsible for the intensifying crackdown on rights and freedoms”.
“The relevant acts and deeds have confused right and wrong, stigmatised Hong Kong’s national security law … smeared the rule of law, democracy, freedom and human rights in the city,” the spokesman for the office said.
“It has grossly interfered with the city’s affairs and China’s internal affairs, and seriously tramples on the principles of international law and basic norms of international relations.
The office slammed the US for its “usual tactic” of releasing an annual policy act report on Hong Kong, which it called “another despicable footnote of US hegemony and bullying” and said the country liked to “ask others to take medicine when it itself is getting sick”.
“The United States is striving to stage a Hong Kong-related script made up of lies in an attempt to deceive the world for undeserved fame,” he said.
“Little does it know that no one has bought into this annual farce. It will only get boos and ridicule, and it should have been swept into the dustbin of history!”
The office spokesman stressed that Beijing would remain unfazed in the face of any external pressure.
“Since ancient times, the Chinese people have not been afraid of ghosts or believed in evil. They have never been afraid of power or pressure,” he said.
“In the face of provocations, troubles and cunning tactics by external forces, all Chinese people, including Hong Kong compatriots, will not bend their backs.”
The spokesman said all “slander, noise, pressure or sanctions” would be ignored, decrying such acts as a “waste of effort”.
“Using Hong Kong issues to stage a clumsy show of hypocrisy and its own double standards will only overdraw the US’s little remaining face and credibility!” he added.
Blinken said on Friday that he would once again certify Hong Kong as ineligible for special consideration under US law that it had enjoyed before its handover to China on July 1, 1997, and had remained in place for more than two decades since.
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Hong Kong passes domestic national security law, fast-tracking legislation shelved for 2 decades
Hong Kong passes domestic national security law, fast-tracking legislation shelved for 2 decades
He criticised China for taking continuous actions over the years against Hong Kong’s promised high degree of autonomy, democratic institutions, as well as rights and freedoms.
Blinken said Hong Kong’s domestic national security law had “broad and vaguely defined provisions regarding ‘sedition’, ‘state secrets’, and interactions with foreign entities”.
“These provisions could both be used to eliminate dissent inside Hong Kong and applied outside its borders as part of [China’s] ongoing campaign of transnational repression,” he said.
US to put new visa limits on Hong Kong officials in wake of Article 23
US to put new visa limits on Hong Kong officials in wake of Article 23
America’s policy act for the city, also referred to as the Hong Kong Relations Act, gives Washington discretion to treat it separately from mainland China in areas such as trade and economic engagement.
In the 2024 report published Friday, the State Department said China had taken “new actions that directly threaten US interests in Hong Kong”.
Some 84,000 Americans living in the city faced “heightened risk of arrest, detention, expulsion or prosecution” if they publicly criticised China, it added.
The report also acknowledged that some of the 35 arrests the department claimed were made over the past year, “based on publicly available information” were made “pursuant to the colonial-era statute on ‘sedition’ and the offences listed” in the 2020 national security law.
The State Department submits a report annually to Congress as part of the US Hong Kong Policy Act that was enacted in 1992, along with the certification process.
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