President Trump took aggressive action Friday to penalize China over its move to dominate Hong Kong and to penalize the World Health Organization for its supplication to China.
Trump says he will “terminate” America’s relationship with the global health organization. Although it is not clear whether he can withhold U.S. financial support for the WHO absent congressional action, his move will be seen by supporters as an arrow shot in support of his “America First” foreign policy.
Whether the WHO will lose all U.S. engagement or not, it must be said: The WHO’s deference to Beijing should not go without punishment. Had the organization behaved more honestly and more quickly in dealing with the coronavirus epidemic, it might have prevented the global pandemic that now so afflicts us.
Still, it is the Hong Kong news that is most striking here. The U.S. government now asserts that China, by introducing a national security law that lacks the consent of Hong Kong’s elected government, has breached the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. That accord requires that China respect Hong Kong’s political freedoms and judicial independence until 2047. By moving unilaterally to impose new laws upon the former British colony and trade outpost, China has shredded its obligations. Trump says that Chinese officials involved “directly or indirectly” in repressing Hong Kong’s population will be sanctioned. Expect this to mean sanctions on top individuals such as Minister of State Security Chen Wenqing.
Trump also said that new steps will be taken to make it more difficult for Chinese intelligence officers or agents to enter the United States and steal national economic, research-related, military, and political secrets.
More importantly, however, Trump is ending U.S. waivers that provide for privileged trade authority in Hong Kong. This will infuriate China, which had hoped to immolate Hong Kong’s democracy while sustaining its financial interests in the city. Trump’s move will significantly increase compliance concerns on the part of international banks and other financial entities in Hong Kong. Of particular worry to Hong Kong and Beijing will be whether Trump’s move prevents Hong Kong’s direct trading access to U.S. dollar purchases. The city’s economy will face very dark times in the coming months.
U.S.-China relations are now at their lowest point since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. And while Trump is centering his reelection campaign and foreign policy on the constraint of China’s imperialist international agenda, China seems increasingly determined to escalate in turn.
And so, whether in Hong Kong, northern India, or on and above the oceans, the risks in this new Cold War are growing rapidly.
