{"id":33460,"date":"2021-03-31T11:58:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T18:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=33460"},"modified":"2021-03-31T16:05:50","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T23:05:50","slug":"hong-kong-policy-act-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=33460","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong Policy Act Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>03\/31\/2021 10:52 AM EDT<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n<p>Over the past year,\u00a0the\u00a0People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC)\u00a0has continued to\u00a0dismantle Hong Kong\u2019s\u00a0high degree of\u00a0autonomy,\u00a0in\u00a0violation of\u00a0its obligations\u00a0under the Sino-British Joint Declaration\u00a0and\u00a0Hong Kong\u2019s Basic Law.\u00a0\u00a0In particular, the\u00a0PRC\u00a0government\u2019s\u00a0adoption\u00a0<wbr><\/wbr>and\u00a0the\u00a0Hong Kong government\u2019s\u00a0implementation of\u00a0the National Security\u00a0Law\u00a0(NSL)\u00a0have\u00a0<wbr><\/wbr>severely\u00a0undermined\u00a0the\u00a0rights and freedoms\u00a0of\u00a0people in\u00a0Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<p>Each year,\u00a0the Department of State\u00a0submits\u00a0to Congress the Hong Kong Policy Act report and accompanying certification.\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a0conjunction with\u00a0this year\u2019s report,\u00a0I have\u00a0certified to Congress that Hong Kong does not warrant\u00a0differential\u00a0treatment under U.S. law in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1, 1997.<\/p>\n<p>This report documents\u00a0many\u00a0of the\u00a0actions\u00a0the PRC and Hong Kong governments\u00a0have\u00a0taken\u00a0<wbr><\/wbr>against\u00a0Hong Kong\u2019s\u00a0promised\u00a0high degree of\u00a0autonomy,\u00a0freedoms, and democratic institutions.\u00a0 These include\u00a0the\u00a0arbitrary\u00a0arrests\u00a0<wbr><\/wbr>and politically-motivated prosecutions\u00a0of opposition politicians, activists, and\u00a0peaceful\u00a0protesters\u00a0under the NSL and other legislation;\u00a0the postponement of\u00a0Legislative Council\u00a0elections; pressure on\u00a0judicial independence and\u00a0academic and press freedoms; and\u00a0a\u00a0de facto\u00a0ban on public demonstrations.<\/p>\n<p>I am committed to continuing to\u00a0work\u00a0with Congress\u00a0and our allies and partners around the world to\u00a0stand with people in Hong Kong\u00a0against\u00a0the PRC\u2019s\u00a0egregious\u00a0policies and actions.\u00a0\u00a0As demonstrated by the March 16\u00a0Hong Kong Autonomy Act update, which listed 24 PRC and Hong Kong officials\u00a0whose actions reduced Hong Kong\u2019s autonomy, we\u00a0will\u00a0impose consequences for these actions.\u00a0\u00a0We will continue to\u00a0call on the PRC to\u00a0abide by\u00a0its international obligations and commitments;\u00a0to cease its dismantlement of Hong Kong\u2019s democratic institutions, autonomy, and rule of law;\u00a0to\u00a0release immediately\u00a0and drop all charges\u00a0against\u00a0individuals unjustly detained in\u00a0Hong Kong;\u00a0and to\u00a0respect\u00a0the human rights of\u00a0all individuals\u00a0in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>03\/31\/2021 10:52 AM EDT Antony J.&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33461,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33460\/revisions\/33461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}