HONG KONG (AP) — The United States said Saturday it did not renew a national emergency declaration over Hong Kong, leading to the lifting of partial sanctions, but it said an executive order that revoked Hong Kong’s special trading status remains in place. Hours ago, China said the U.S. recently confirmed to China that the President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization would end, the ministry said in a statement responding to media questions. That announcement had appeared to be a sign that the city’s preferential privileges might be restored. But a statement from a State Department spokesperson sent to the AP said that U.S. President Donald Trump “allowed the national emergency to end, but Executive Order 13936 otherwise remains in effect.”As the order states, Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment in relation to mainland China under certain laws and provisions, it said.
National emergency declaration had expiredThe U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement Friday that the national emergency declared in the executive order had expired and that it delisted people who were sanctioned under the order. But it said people who remain sanctioned under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act of 2020 have been added to a different sanction list.
