WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2021) The United States has imposed sanctions on three Chinese and three Hong Kong officials in relation to a crackdown on protesters in the special administrative region on January 6 that led to more than 50 arrests, the Treasury Department said in a notice on Friday.
You Quan, the Vice Chairman of the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, Sun Wenqing, the Deputy Director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong and Tam Yiu-Chung, Hong Kong delegate to the National People's Congress Standing Committee as well as three Hong Kong security officials were designated by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a statement, condemned the arrests and called on authorities in China and Hong Kong to release the detainees, while vowing to hold those alleged to have orchestrated the crackdown to account.
On January 6, Police in Hong Kong on Wednesday detained over 50 high-profile anti-Beijing activists and politicians, including one US national, in early morning raids. According to South China Morning Post, all former Democratic opposition lawmakers - who resigned in protest in November - were arrested along with high-profile political organizers who took part in last July's Primary runoff effort to elect anti-Beijing candidates to the Legislative Council.
Beijing has expressed its support for the Hong Kong Police and has slammed Washington for what is says is a double standard in how the unrest in Hong Kong and at the US Capitol were perceived.
Frederic Choi Chin-Pang, Kelvin Kong Hok Lai, and Andrew Kan Kai Yan, officials in the National Security Division of the Hong Kong Police were also sanctioned by the OFAC, the notice said.
