US sanctions 6 Chinese and Hong Kong officials over rights abuses. Beijing threatens to retaliate

HONG KONG (AP) — The United States sanctioned six Chinese and Hong Kong officials who it alleged were involved in “transnational repression” and acts that threaten to further erode the city's autonomy.

The six officials included Justice Secretary Paul Lam, security office director Dong Jingwei and police commissioner Raymond Siu.

The sanctions are expected to further escalate tensions between Washington and Beijing, who are already locked in friction over trade tariffs and other issues like Taiwan.

“Beijing and Hong Kong officials have used Hong Kong national security laws extraterritorially to intimidate, silence, and harass 19 pro-democracy activists who were forced to flee overseas, including a U.S. citizen and four other U.S. residents,” the U.S. State Department said.

The statement, dated Monday, said the six officials were linked to entities or actions that allegedly engaged “in the coercing, arresting, detaining or imprisoning of individuals” under the authority of the city's security law, or implementing the law.

Lam said the sanctions would have little impact on him. “They do not affect my work; they do not affect my life,” he said in a statement, adding that the sanctions represented “blatant tyrannical bullying intended to deter people from participating in safeguarding national security.”

The other three affected officials were Sonny Au, the secretary-general for the city's committee for safeguarding national security, and Dick Wong and Margaret Chiu, both assistant commissioners of the police.

Since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 to quell the 2019 massive anti-government protests, Hong Kong authorities have prosecuted many leading activists in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

The crackdown has drawn criticism from foreign governments, especially because the city was promised that its Western-style civil liberties and semi-autonomy would be kept intact for at least 50 years during the 1997 handover. Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist the law is necessary for the city’s stability.

Over the past two years, Hong Kong authorities have issued arrest warrants for 19 activists based overseas, with bounties of $1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,536) for information leading to each of their arrests. The affected activists included former pro-democracy lawmakers Nathan Law and Ted Hui. They also canceled the passports of some of the overseas-based activists under a new security law introduced to the city last year.

The U.S. citizen wanted is Joey Siu, who on Monday wrote in a X post that she was “delighted to see this long-awaited step finally taken” by the U.S. government. She said she looked forward to further action addressing Beijing's “ongoing crackdown on Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms.”

The Hong Kong office of China's foreign ministry condemned the sanctions, saying they again exposed the ill-intention of the U.S. to undermine the city's prosperity and contain China's development. It urged Washington to stop interfering in the city's affairs.

“China will surely take effective countermeasures against these despicable acts by the U.S.!” it said in a statement.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said China would take resolute countermeasures for any wrong actions by the U.S. He argued the actions taken by Hong Kong police against “anti-China elements” who fled abroad were carried out according to the law and that the U.S. has no right to interfere with the city's national security cases.

The Hong Kong government strongly condemned the U.S. for the sanctions, saying it despises them and is not intimidated by them.

“It, once again, clearly exposed the U.S. barbarity under its hegemony, which is exactly the same as its recent tactics in bullying and coercing various countries and regions,” it said in a statement.

It said the “absconders” mentioned by the U.S. government are wanted for arrest because they continued to blatantly engage in activities endangering national security overseas. It said the U.S. has given cover for those “who have committed these evil deeds," and therefore it was necessary for the city to take lawful measures to combat the acts.

“The imposition of the so-called ‘sanctions’ in the guise of defending human rights and democracy indeed constitute a demonstration of shameless hypocrisy with double standards on the part of the U.S.,” it said.

Hong Kong police said the U.S. government's attempt to use political pressure to interfere with law enforcement work is effectively encouraging illegal activities.

But Frances Hui, one of the overseas-based activists targeted by the authorities, wrote on X that it was a critical step in addressing the city's worsening crackdown. She said they hoped it marked the beginning of a sustained effort to hold perpetrators accountable.

The latest U.S. sanctions were not the first related to the city. During Donald Trump's first presidential term, his government also imposed sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy.

In 2021, the U.S. slapped more sanctions on officials over Beijing’s crackdown on political freedoms in the semi-autonomous city under former U.S. President Joe Biden administration.

FILE - Hong Kong's Secretary for Justice Paul Lam attends a press conference following the passing of the Basic Law Article 23 legislation at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, on March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte, File)

FIEL - Raymond Siu Chak-yee, commissioner of police speaks during a press conference to "review the law and order situation of Hong Kong and the work of the police in 2021", at the police headquarters in Hong Kong, on Jan. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says his executive orders targeting law firms are being issued in the name of national security, with the White House asserting that the firms don't deserve access to sensitive U.S. government information.

But the firms fear the orders are being written so broadly as to potentially weaken national security by calling into question the status of security clearances of lawyers who, in addition to their legal practice, serve as military reservists and require their clearances to report to duty.

It's an example of the sweeping and sometimes unintended consequences of White House efforts to reshape civil society, with those affected in some instances not necessarily being the ones who were top of mind when the Trump administration announced the actions in the first place. Military veterans, for instance, have not been spared from Trump's ongoing slashing of the federal government.

Trump's law firm executive orders have generally targeted firms that have associations with prosecutors who previously investigated him or employ, or have employed, attorneys he perceives as political adversaries. The orders have consistently imposed the same consequences, including threatening the suspension of all active security clearances held by employees at the singled-out firms.

Security clearances are issued for government workers and contractors who require access to classified national security information as part of their job. The federal government has broad discretion over who does and who does not obtain a clearance.

It's unclear how many lawyers at the four firms who remain subject to executive orders — several others have averted them through settlements with the White House — hold security clearances either through their jobs or other work, or whether the Trump administration would move forward with plans to revoke the clearances of military reservists.

A White House spokesman, asked for comment, pointed to the provision of the order that says the clearances are to be suspended “pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.” The response seemed to suggest that clearances of reservists could potentially be spared.

In the meantime, though, the issue was raised during a court hearing Friday in which a lawyer representing WilmerHale, one of the targeted firms, noted that the firm has within its ranks military reservists who have security clearances. Another firm that's been subject to an executive order, Perkins Coie, also has said that it employs military reservists.

“I don’t think for a minute the government lawyer is going to come up here and tell you that they actually intended to suspend the reservists’ security clearances," Paul Clement, a prominent Washington appellate lawyer who is representing WilmerHale, told the judge. “But they’re painting with such a broad brush with this thing, they aren’t distinguishing sheep from goats at all.”

He said Friday that “two of those lawyers have to report for their reserve duty next week. Now, I can’t tell you for sure that they’re going to show up and they’re not going to be able to do their job because their security clearance has been suspended.”

A person familiar with the matter, who insisted on anonymity to describe non-public information, said about a half-dozen WilmerHale employees are reservists.

Several firms, including WilmerHale and Perkins Coie, have succeeded in winning court orders temporarily blocking enforcement of certain sections of the executive orders. The security clearance provisions, though, have remained in effect, a reflection of a president's expansive powers when ordering the suspension or revocation of clearances.

Dan Meyer, a lawyer who specializes in security clearances at the Tully Rinckey law firm — which is not among those targeted by the executive orders — said that he assumed the number of attorneys at major law firms is small and that it was possible military reservists might be able to keep their clearances, but it could conceivably require a lengthy adjudication.

“It may be that word will go quietly from the White House, ‘Don’t screw with any of these reservists at these law firms,’” Meyer said.

But, he added, “If the cat wants to claw the mouse, there’s an opportunity to do it.”

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, March 31, 2025. (Pool via AP)