China will ban US warships and military aircraft from Hong Kong after the passage of legislation supporting the territory's pro-democracy protesters.
The Foreign Ministry of China declared that it will ban US military from visiting Hong Kong following US President Donald Trump's signing of a legislation supporting the pro-democracy protesters. The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act went through both Houses of the US Congress with almost unanimous bipartisan approval.
The new law would allow Washington to impose sanctions or even suspend Hong Kong's special trading status over human rights violations. Shortly after Trump signed the bill into law, China's Foreign Ministry accused the US of "bullying behavior," "disregarding the facts" and "publicly supporting violent criminals."
At a news conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: "In response to the unreasonable behaviors of the US side, the Chinese government decides to suspend the review of requests by US military ships and aircraft to visit Hong Kong as of today."
Hua also announced that China will be imposing sanctions on several US nongovernmental human rights organizations that have been monitoring and reporting on the protests in Hong Kong. According to the Chinese government, the NGOs allegedly supported "anti-China people" and said they were instigating protesters "engaging in extreme crimes" in pursuit of Hong Kong's separation from China.
Hua said: "China decides to sanction on the organizations that behave badly during the Hong Kong extradition-bill unrest, including National Endowment for Democracy, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, International Republican Institute, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House."
Last week, China criticized the US after the US Navy sailed warships within 12 miles of Chinese-claimed islands in the South China Sea in what they call "freedom on navigation" operations. Ren Guoqiang, spokesman for China's Defense Ministry said: "The trespassing hurts regional peace and stability, harms China's sovereignty and security, and endangers the lives of frontline officers and soldiers of both sides."
