Washington suspends extradition and tax agreement with Hong Kong

• Financial

On Wednesday, fanning the flames further of an already escalated Sino-US trade row, the Trump Administration had cancelled three bilateral accords with the China-controlled island city of Hong Kong including extraditions and tax incentives, remarking another dialectic US move in response to China’s new National Security Law what analysts said could compromise the autonomous status of the long-hailed Asian Financial HubSpot.

Besides, as Trump Administration had been piling up pressures on Beijing, referring to the State Department’s latest move to muzzle its trade ties with Hong Kong, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet shortly after the announcement, “The Chinese Communist Party chose to crush the freedoms and autonomy of the people of Hong Kong”.

On top of that, while issuing the proclamations on Wednesday, the US State Department was also quoted saying that Beijing’s latest approach to impose a new National Security Law which in effect would enable the Chinese intelligences to establish holdings in Hong Kong, had been a complete violation of a treaty to retain Hong Kong’s autonomy for fifty years starting from 1998 while Britain had agreed to hand over the island city to Chinese ruling.

US terminates extradition and tax incentives for Hong Kong-based businesses

Aside from that, latest move from the Trump Administration to cancel three bilateral agreements with Hong Kong comes over the heels of an earlier Presidential proclamation from the US President Donald Trump, while Trump had terminated the preferential status of the China-controlled island city of Hong Kong.

In factuality, the three bilateral accords with Hong Kong terminated on Wednesday included the surrender of US fugitives residing in Hong Kong, extraditions alongside reciprocal tax incentives on earnings from international shipping.

Meanwhile, pouring cold water over a sharply deteriorating Sino-US relationship, State Dept. spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement earlier in the day, “These steps underscore our deep concern regarding Beijing’s decision to impose the National Security Law, which has crushed the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong”.