Biden says situation in Hong Kong deteriorating

US preparing business advisory after Beijing presses ahead with a crackdown that has seen arrests.

US President Joe Biden. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden said the situation in Hong Kong was “deteriorating” as the administration prepared to issue an advisory to businesses that he said would lay out what may happen as China furthered its crackdown on the territory.

The US President didn’t give details on the advisory, which officials said may be released this weekend. Asked about the planned advisory during a press conference on Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Biden said: “The situation in Hong Kong is deteriorating, and the ­Chinese government is not keeping its commitment.”

The US advisory is expected to be a warning for businesses rather than sanctions or other actions against China.

After months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong, ­Beijing moved a year ago to ­impose a restrictive national ­security law and arrest and intimidate pro-democracy activists and others critical of China’s rule. The US says those moves violate the treaty ending British rule over the city, whose Western-style rule of law has helped make it an international financial and business hub.

The Trump administration rolled back certain travel and commercial privileges for Hong Kong that don’t apply to the rest of China and targeted officials with sanctions, including Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman reiterated Beijing’s opposition to “US interference in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of the Hong Kong issue”.

Spokesman Zhao Lijian said in Beijing on Wednesday that current laws protect foreign investors in Hong Kong and that “society in Hong Kong has returned to the right track” since the national ­security law was imposed.

The US State Department ­declined to provide details of the expected advisory. US officials and foreign business groups have raised concerns that the national security law potentially threatens to restrict the flow of information and could compromise the security of data – as is already the case in the rest of China.

“We know that a healthy business community relies on the rule of law, which the national security law that applies to Hong Kong continues to undermine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday. “Rule-of-law risks that were formerly limited to mainland China are now increasingly a concern in Hong Kong. That’s of great concern to us.”

Earlier this week, the Biden ­administration warned businesses with supply chains linked to forced labour or human-rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, where China has detained Muslim minorities

The Wall Street Journal