The United States of America has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s Police Commissioner, Raymond Siu Chak-yee and five other officials.
They were sanctioned for human rights reasons.
The sanctions on the police commissioner and the others means any financial transactions with them in the US are now criminalised and any interests they hold in America are blocked.
The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said in a statement on Monday that the sanctions would send the right signal to the world that the Trump administration is committed to holding to account those responsible for depriving people of their protected rights and freedom.
He said also that those who commit acts of transnational repression on US soil or against US persons would not go unpunished.
Paul Lam, the Hong Kong’s secretary of justice, is among those targeted in the new sanctions.
Hong Kong’s top official, Chief Executive John Lee, is already under US sanctions.
The officials were targeted in line with a US law that champions Hong Kong democracy.
The State Department also pointed to some of the officials’ roles in efforts to “intimidate, silence and harass 19 pro-democracy activists” who fled overseas, including one US citizen and four US residents.
Rubio has been outspoken on China’s human rights record dating back to his time as a senator.
The Secretary of state earlier also imposed sanctions on officials in Thailand over their deportations back to China of members of the Uyghur minority.
Beijing promised a separate system to Hong Kong when Britain handed over the financial hub in 1997.
