Thursday, 16 July 2020_The Chinese Foreign Ministry has summoned the US ambassador to Beijing over its unilateral sanctions against Hong Kong.
US Ambassador Terry Branstad was summoned on Wednesday to receive an official warning from Deputy Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang.
The move came hours after President Donald Trump stripped Hong Kong of preferential trade treatment and authorized sanctions on banks on the pretext of the new national security law in Hong Kong.
"This is gross interference in China's internal affairs and seriously violates international law and basic norms of international relations," the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.
The statement said in order to safeguard its own legitimate interests, China will take the necessary response to the US' wrong actions, including sanctions against US entities and individuals.
The US ambassador was also told that his country had recently taken "bad actions" on the Chinese regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, and the South China Sea, "further exposing the nature of its hegemony".
“With regard to this, China has and will continue to take countermeasures to resolutely safeguard its core interests. I want to tell the US that any bullying and injustice it imposes on China will be resolutely countered,” the statement added.
Trump’s move came two weeks after Hong Kong enacted a national security law that criminalizes sedition, secession, and subversion against mainland China and allows Chinese national security institutions to operate in the city for the first time since 1997, when Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule.
The US, Britain, and other Western countries have criticized the law and have moved to take action against Beijing and Hong Kong. China, however, insists that Hong Kong is a purely internal Chinese affair.
Relations between the United States and China have hit the lowest level in decades. The two are at loggerheads over a range of issues, including trade, human rights, the South China Sea, arms sales to Taiwan and the coronavirus pandemic.
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