Businesses operating in Hong Kong could fall afoul of national security legislation and face heightened legal and regulatory risks, including contravening US sanctions, an alert issued on Friday by the White House said.
The advisory said the additional danger was posed by China’s March implementation of the Article 23 security legislation in Hong Kong, which the US has warned could further erode human rights protections and be used to prosecute routine business activities.
“The vaguely defined nature of the law and previous government statements and actions raise questions about risks associated with routine activities,” it said of the new Article 23 law.
Photo: Reuters
US authorities are concerned that lobbying, market analysis relying on government data, publishing media analysis or commentary, or engaging with reporters, think tanks or nongovernmental organizations could be classified as threats to national security, the bulletin said.
“Businesses should be aware that the risks they face in the People’s Republic of China are now increasingly present in Hong Kong,” US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller wrote in a social media post.
More than 300 people have been arrested under an initial 2020 security law in Hong Kong, including a US citizen, the State Department said.
The advisory also said that Russia was increasingly using Hong Kong as a midway point to evade sanctions and export controls imposed because of its invasion of Ukraine, and that the territory also served as a hub for chemical and pharmaceutical companies helping to supply precursor chemicals for the production of fentanyl.
Moreover, Hong Kong is a primary pathway to circumvent export controls related to Chinese semiconductor manufacturing, the US said.
As a result, US firms should take special care to avoid doing business with individuals or entities that could be subject to sanctions, the bulletin said.
The advisory updated a warning the State Department first issued in 2021, shortly after Beijing imposed the National Security Law on Hong Kong, and was altered in part to account for changes passed by the territory’s Safeguarding National Security ordinance in March.
Hong Kong authorities have downplayed the significance of the provisions, saying they are similar to security laws in other countries.
Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan (陳國基) yesterday said the US advisory was an attempt to suppress China’s rise and that national security cases are treated fairly in court.
“The National Security Law has been enacted for a long time and we can all see that we have never groundlessly arrested any business people,” Chan told reporters.
The US advisory “involves an element of intimidation, to scare away business people hoping to invest in Hong Kong. I don’t think this ploy will succeed,” he said.
Additional reporting by AFP
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’