US revokes HK special status

The United States on Wednesday revoked Hong Kong's special status under US law, paving the way to strip trading privileges for the financial hub as Washington accused China of trampling on the territory's autonomy.
Hours before China's parliament was set to take a key vote on a new Hong Kong security law that has sparked protests, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo certified to Congress that Hong Kong "does not continue to warrant treatment" under US laws that it has enjoyed even after its handover to China in 1997. Under a law passed last year to support Hong Kong's protesters, the US administration must certify that the territory still "enjoys freedoms" promised by Beijing when negotiating with Britain to take back the colony.
"No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground," Pompeo said in a statement.
Although the administration could still waive consequences, the US law says that Hong Kong would lose the trading advantages, including lower tariffs, that it enjoys with the world's largest economy.
Pompeo had initially delayed the report, saying the United States was waiting to see the session of China's National People's Congress.
The legislature is expected Thursday to take another step on the security law that would ban secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference - a step that Hong Kong activists say abolishes basic freedoms.
"While the United States once hoped that free and prosperous Hong Kong would provide a model for authoritarian China, it is now clear that China is modeling Hong Kong after itself," Pompeo said.
"The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong as they struggle against the CCP's increasing denial of the autonomy that they were promised," he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
Protests also broke out in Hong Kong on Wednesday over another controversial proposed law that criminalizes insults to the national anthem with up to three years in jail.
Police surrounded the city's legislature with water-filled barriers and conducted widespread stop-and-search operations to deter mass gatherings.
Small flashmob rallies in the districts of Causeway Bay, Mong Kok and Central, the latter broken up by officers firing crowd-control rounds filled with a pepper-based irritant.