China decided to deprive Hong Kong of special rights

The National People's Congress of China (NPC) today officially approved the development of a bill to ensure national security in Hong Kong. The US has already promised not to leave it without consequences, believing that this will put an end to autonomy and deal a blow to Hong Kong as a world financial center.

The bill introduces criminal liability for Hong Kong residents for the first time, bypassing the legislature of the special administrative region. We are talking about crimes related to "separatism, undermining the foundations of statehood, terrorism, as well as the intervention of foreign states and agents." This will allow the authorities in mainland China to freely pursue the Hong Kong opposition.

The day before, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that in this way "reasonable grounds for believing that Hong Kong currently enjoys a high degree of autonomy from China" have been lost.

This statement implies far-reaching implications for the countries' relations. The fact is that now Hong Kong as an autonomy is not subject to duties imposed during the US trade war with China, the FT notes. The removal of these preferences is the most obvious step, although the Trump administration has not yet detailed the response.

Pompeo's statement the day before lowered the Hong Kong Hang Seng index by 2.2%, today it fell within a percentage.

• For the first time, Beijing tried to pass a similar law back in 2003, but after protest rallies, one of which gathered 500,000 people, abandoned this plan. The Hong Kong authorities believe that this is the end of the "one country, two systems" principle.

• Protests in Hong Kong have been intermittently going on since the spring of 2019, when Beijing tried to pass a law requiring Hong Kong to extradite wanted people to mainland China. After six months of protests in the fall of 2019, that bill was withdrawn.