Original title: China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it would counter-attack five US personnel. What are their backgrounds?
[Article / Observer Net Tongli]Recently, the US changed its name and repeatedly announced sanctions against five Chinese officials on the grounds of the so-called “Hong Kong Autonomy Law.” The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China also lamented that it “doesn’t understand.” In this regard, China has decided to take a reciprocal countermeasure, and today (30th) it also announced the US “lucky boy” who was named and sanctioned by China for the second time.
The five US personnel are Ross, former Secretary of Commerce of the United States, Caroline Bartholomew, chairman of the US-China Economic and Security Review Committee (USCC) of the American Council, and former office director of the Congress-Executive China Committee (CECC). Jonathan Stilworth, “American Association for Democracy in International Affairs” Kim Doyoon, “American Institute of International Republic” authorized representative Adam King in Hong Kong.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also announced sanctions, including prohibiting the entry of the above-mentioned people, including Hong Kong and Macau, freezing their property in China, and prohibiting Chinese citizens and institutions from trading with them.
Who are these 5 people? What’s the background? What bad behaviors have they taken? In particular, the colleagues and units of several of them are already “frequent visitors” on China’s sanctions list.
Five months later, the U.S. sanctions “Turn over old accounts, fried cold rice”
Observer.com found that the five US personnel involved in China’s reciprocal countermeasures in accordance with the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Act were also on the list of the seven US personnel and entities that China countered in July.
The U.S. State Department and the Treasury Department announced on December 20 that they would impose sanctions on five deputy directors of the Liaison Office in Hong Kong in accordance with the “Hong Kong Autonomy Act.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian strongly condemned this behavior on the 21st, and specifically pointed out that in July of this year, the United States had already announced that it had issued the so-called “Hong Kong Business Warning” to 7 persons including the above-mentioned 5 deputy directors of the Liaison Office of the Central Committee of Hong Kong. Chinese officials impose sanctions. The US has now changed its name and announced another sanction against the above-mentioned personnel on the grounds of the so-called “Hong Kong Autonomy Law.” I don’t understand this. This behavior is really absurd and disgusting.
As a result, the following five U.S. personnel were also on the Chinese sanctions list again:
Former US Secretary of Commerce Ross. The U.S. Department of Commerce is indispensable for the unprovoked black hands of Hong Kong’s business environment.
On June 29, 2020, the then US Secretary of Commerce Ross issued a statement officially abolishing the special trade treatment for Hong Kong, prohibiting the sale of dual-use high-tech equipment to Hong Kong, and will continue to evaluate the cancellation of other special treatments in Hong Kong.
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the termination of the Hong Kong export license exception treatment and prohibits the export of defense equipment and sensitive technology to Hong Kong.
On July 16, 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce, together with the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Treasury, fabricated the so-called “Hong Kong Business Warning” and discredited Hong Kong’s business environment on the grounds that the SAR implemented the Hong Kong National Security Law and the suspension of the “Apple Daily”. , Vilified the development of Hong Kong and the prospects of “one country, two systems”, and announced sanctions on seven officials of the Liaison Office of the Central Committee of Hong Kong.
The 84-year-old Ross is not only a politically active, but also a wealthy businessman and investor who also has business in China. As Secretary of Commerce, he is one of Trump’s forwards in provoking a trade dispute between China and the United States.
In addition to government officials, various U.S. committees are also intervening in Hong Kong affairs.
The sanctioned Carolyn Bartholomew (Carolyn Bartholomew) is the chairman of the US-China Economic and Security Review Committee (USCC). Since its establishment in 2000, this independent government group has submitted the so-called “annual report” to Congress almost every year. The 11 members of the group are not members of Congress but are appointed by Congress.
In the lengthy report of more than 500 pages this year, it continued to exaggerate the “China Threat Theory” and spent a lot of space on topics such as Hong Kong and Taiwan. At the press conference, Bartholomew slandered China for deepening its “wolf war” behavior and “becoming more and more aggressive.”
The Hong Kong English-language media South China Morning Post quoted a former US government official’s description of the committee and its reports over the past 20 years: a useful catalog of difficult bilateral issues and a barometer of the US government’s views on China.
He said that after China joined the global trading system, it was a bit like a safety valve that discredited China. “But I don’t think it has had much impact on US policy.”
Chairman Bartholomew himself served in the US Congress and was a long-term senior assistant to Speaker of the House of Representatives Pelosi. Her two-year term will end at the end of this month, and she has been re-elected as the chairperson or vice chairperson of the committee for several consecutive terms. She has concocted a number of “annual reports” and visited Taiwan during the period. She also visited the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2019. The rule of law in the Mainland.
Jonathan Stivers (Jonathan Stivers), the former office director of another committee, the US Congress-Executive China Committee (CECC).
This institution was also established in October 2000 and is composed of 9 senators, 9 members of the House of Representatives, and 5 senior government officials appointed by the president. “Anti-China vanguard” Rubio and others are now one of them. They are specifically responsible for deliberately discussing China’s internal affairs, known as “monitoring China’s human rights situation and the development of the rule of law”, and submit annual reports to the President of the United States and Congress.
When these politicians fabricated the 2019 and 2020 annual reports to repeatedly discredit “Hong Kong’s autonomy is being eroded”, Stilworth is their “chief executive.”
The other two sanctioned persons were related to non-governmental organizations: DoYun Kim of the “American Association for the Democracy of International Affairs” and Adam King (Adam King), the authorized representative of the “American Institute of International Republic” in Hong Kong.
In 2019, Hong Kong’s “Ta Kung Pao” also introduced “DoYun Kim” as “Amnesty International Asia Initiative and Government Relations Commissioner.” In the news, DoYun Kim and others from the “American Association for the Democracy of International Affairs” are meeting with “Hong Kong disruptors” such as Martin Lee and Li Zhuoren.
Adam King is the Asian senior project manager of the “American International Republic Institute”. He has worked for the “National Democracy Foundation” and the United States Agency for International Development in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Mainland China, Hong Kong, India and other places. Live and work.
Picture from “Ta Kung Pao”
The “American Association for the Democracy of International Affairs” and the “American Institute of International Republic”, both of which they work, are affiliated with the “National Foundation for Democracy.” The “National Democracy Foundation” is mainly funded by the U.S. Congress. Since its establishment in 1983, it “has been at the forefront of the struggle for’democracy’ around the world.”
In fact, in December 2019, in response to the unreasonable behavior of the U.S. insisting on signing the so-called “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act” into law in spite of China’s firm opposition, China has decided to suspend the approval of the application of U.S. warships and aircraft to Hong Kong for rest and reorganization from today. Sanctions were imposed on NGOs that performed badly during the Hong Kong legislative amendments, such as the “National Foundation for Democracy”, “American Association for Democracy in International Affairs”, “US Institute of International Republican Studies”, “Human Rights Watch”, and “Freedom House” .
In August last year, in response to the wrongdoing of the United States, China announced sanctions against 11 Americans including the U.S. Senator Rubio who performed badly on Hong Kong-related issues. Among them was Midway, the president of the “American Association for Democracy in International Affairs”. And the president of the “American International Republican Institute” Twining.
In November last year, China again decided to impose sanctions on Anand, the head of the Asian project of the “American Association for the Democracy of International Affairs”, Rosario, the head of the Hong Kong branch, and Xue Deao, the project director.
A lot of facts and evidence show that these directly named non-governmental organizations played an ugly role behind the scenes of Hong Kong’s legislative amendments.
On December 30, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian once again criticized the U.S. for repeating the sanctions this time as “turning over old accounts and frying out cold rice. It is nothing more than hyping up Hong Kong-related issues and serving political conspiracy to contain China. This completely exposed the United States‘ concern about human rights in Hong Kong as a falsehood. It is true to undermine the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong.”
Zhao Lijian emphasized that we once again urge the US to lift the so-called sanctions on Chinese personnel, stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and interfere in China’s internal affairs. China will continue to take all necessary measures in accordance with the law to safeguard national interests and dignity.
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