US, UK raise Hong Kong issue at UNSC

UNITED NATIONS: The United States (US) and Britain on Friday defied China’s anger by raising Hong Kong’s autonomy at the UN Security Council as President Donald Trump prepared new measures against Beijing.

Western criticism of China has escalated after it moved ahead this week on a security law that many Hong Kongers fear would kill off the freedoms, which Beijing promised before Britain handed over the territory in 1997. But the United States and Britain said they were raising Hong Kong during an informal, closed-door videoconference where Beijing cannot block agenda items.

The meeting opened Friday with all Security Council members present, diplomats said. Kelly Craft, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the United States and Britain wanted "emergency discussion" on the security law.

"The free world must stand with the people of Hong Kong," she wrote on Twitter.

China has denounced the move as interference, saying that the Hong Kong law was outside the mandate of the Security Council.

"We urge the US to immediately stop this senseless political manipulation,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in Beijing, saying China would not allow the US to “kidnap the Council for its own purposes.”

Dmitry Polyanskiy, the deputy UN ambassador of China´s ally Russia, called the discussion a “mere provocation” and “abuse” of the Council, which is tasked with maintaining international peace and security.

“We never discuss internal matters of member-states,” he wrote on Twitter.

“It´s like opening a Pandora’s box and could make damage for the US itself,” he said, adding: “Our colleagues surely understand this.”

A diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was debate among Security Council members on whether Hong Kong in fact constitutes an issue of international peace and security.

“Some will say it is, others will say it´s not. So there is a debate on this one, like on other issues,” the diplomat said.

Trump is set to speak later Friday on new US measures against China as tensions rise between the two countries on a host of fronts.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo certified that Hong Kong no longer enjoys autonomy that warrants its separate treatment under US law.

With elections approaching, Trump has also sought to cast China as the cause for the devastation of the COVID-19 virus, news of which was initially suppressed when the illness was first detected in Wuhan late last year.

Meanwhile, China accused the US of taking the UN hostage over a controversial security law for Hong Kong and warned Western nations to stay out of its internal affairs.

The US, Britain, Canada and Australia led criticism of the planned law, which would punish secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and acts that endanger national security, as well as allow Chinese security agencies to operate openly in Hong Kong.

Global equities mostly sank as US President Donald Trump readied a response to Beijing´s controversial planned national security law for Hong Kong.

Trump has called a news conference later Friday, as heightened tensions between the two superpowers overshadowed optimism over signs that the global coronavirus crisis was easing.

“Markets are rightly worrying about escalating tensions between the US and China,” said Holger Schmieding, an analyst with Berenberg.

Trump might announce targeted sanctions against Beijing, he said. “This dispute is serious,” Schmieding added.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index was down around 140 points shortly after the opening bell, while European markets were also weaker.

“European markets are looking to end the week on a more pessimistic tone, with fears over the impending US reaction to Chinese actions in Hong Kong driving traders to bank their profits ahead of the weekend,” noted IG analyst Joshua Mahony.