Ambassador Terry Branstad met with Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Zheng Zeguang on July 15 to express the United States’ deep concerns about China’s decisions to erode Hong Kong’s fundamental freedoms and to explain the details of the President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization. Ambassador Branstad explained that the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment under particular United States laws and provisions. The President determined that “the situation with respect to Hong Kong, including recent actions taken by the PRC fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy.” Further, that “Hong Kong no longer warrants treatment under United States law in the same manner as United States laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1, 1997.” Ambassador Branstad called on the PRC to restore Hong Kong’s liberties and refrain from any further erosion of its high degree of autonomy as guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
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