US: Revocation of Hong Kong's special trading status remains in place

The US State Department said on Saturday that an executive order that revoked Hong Kong's special trading status remains in place.

This follows Washington's decision to let President Donald Trump's 2020 national emergency declaration over the city to lapse.

In a latest statement to the Associated Press Saturday, the US State Department says Trump has partially removed sanctions and trade restriction imposed by allowing the national emergency to end, but other parts of the executive order, including stripping Hong Kong of its special trading status, remains in effect.

The US State Department statement says it stands by the order which states that Hong Kong is "no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment  in relation to the PRC under particular US laws."

On Friday, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control said the national emergency declared in the executive order had expired and it delisted people who were sanctioned under the order.

But it said people who remain sanctioned under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act of 2020 have been added to a different sanction list.

Hence, 39 of 48 originally-sanctioned individuals,

including current and former chief executives John Lee and Carrie Lam, will continue to be sanctioned.

However, sanctions against Secretary for Justice Paul Lam, former Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu, and seven others have been dropped.

Commentator Professor Lau Siu-kai believes the US government is performing a balancing act.

"I think the United States want to take a small step to implement the agreement with President Xi Jinping and President Trump with regard to building a constructive strategic stability relationship in China. But at the same time the US does not want to really give people an impression

that it has abandoned the strategy of containing China, or to allow the anti-China elements in the States, which is very strong, to oppose this move."