April 1 (UPI) -- The United States has imposed sanctions against Chinese officials accused of committing human rights abuses in Hong Kong as it released its latest report on Beijing's influence over the city once celebrated for its democratic autonomy.
The report to Congress covers the period between January and December of last year, finding that the governments of China and Hong Kong have continued to crack down on the rights and freedoms of the some 7.5 million people who reside in the formerly semi-autonomous city.
It states abuses are being committed in the city under the Beijing-imposed draconian 2020 National Security Law and the Hong Kong government-enacted Safeguarding National Security Ordinance of March 2024.
Under those laws, Hong Kong authorities issued arrest warrants and bounties for six overseas pro-democracy activists on Christmas Eve 2024, as well as canceled the passports of seven others. Among those targeted were British National Overseas passport holders living in Britain and Hong Kong dissidents seeking refuge in the United States.
In total, Hong Kong authorities have a list of 19 pro-democracy protesters wanted for alleged national security crimes with bounties attached to each of their names.
The U.S. report states that over the past year, Hong Kong authorities have "aggressively prosecuted" pro-democracy and media advocates, including Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-shuttered progressive Apple Daily, who is serving multiple prison sentences for charges critics describe as politically motivated.
The sanctions announced Monday by the State Department target six law enforcement agents and civil servants.
Sonny Chi Kwong Au, a state agency official, and Dong Jingwei, a senior civil servant, both sit on the Committee for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong, with Au serving as its secretary general and Jingwei as its director.
Both Dick Chung Chun Wong and Margaret Wing Lan Chiu are assistant commissioners of police, national security; Raymond Chak Yee Siu is the Hong Kong Police Force commissioner; and Paul Ting Kwok Lam is the secretary of justice and is held responsible by the United States for developing, adopting an implementing the National Security Law.
The sanctions freeze all property of those named in the United States while barring U.S. persons from doing business with them.
The report "demonstrates that Beijing has broken its promises to the people of Hong Kong," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on X.
"The United States is imposing sanctions on six individuals for undermining Hong Kong's autonomy, depriving Hong Kongers of freedoms and in being involved in acts of transnational repression targeting activits on U.S. soil."
Hong Kong was a British colony until it was handed over to Beijing in 1997 under conditions that it would maintain a certain level of independence, which critics has been greatly diminished by the 2020 National Security Law, which punishes vaguely defined national security crimes with harsh prison sentences, and the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which arms local law enforcement with new powers to investigate crimes that fall under the first law.
The State Department on Monday also imposed visa restrictions on an unspecified number of Chinese officials over Beijing's refusal to allow U.S. diplomats, journalists and other international observers to access Tibet, which was annexed by China in the early 1950s.
UPI has contacted the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.