The head of HK security rose to 2nd place in the US call for sanctions New protests in Hong Kong

Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam has renewed her cabinet, appointing Secretary-General John Lee as secretary-general – two more government jobs – and police chief Chris Tang as Lee as a replacement for tightening China’s territory. Among the demands for more punishment from the U.S. is the Apple Daily as a result of pro-democracy repression.

At a press conference on Friday, Lam also announced that Deputy Police Commissioner Raymond Siu would become the city’s new police chief.

The appointment of Lee as general secretary is the first time a former police officer has held a senior administrative position in the territory.

While Lam announced the appointments, they were also made with the approval of the Chinese State Council. It was first announced in the Chinese state media.

In a brief statement following a formal announcement on Friday, Lee said he would ensure that “patriots” would govern Hong Kong, and vowed to help the chief executive implement policies to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carrie Lam, Lee and Tang are now in the press. pic.twitter.com/itlKs5wFqY

– Alvin Lum (@alvinllum) June 25, 2021

For his part, Tang said he would ensure that the forces under his command would help protect the city’s “national security,” and help eradicate all forms of domestic “terrorism” and threats from “outside forces”. As police chief, Tang was the city’s main law enforcement in the 2019 pro-democracy protests.

Meanwhile, Siuk said he “will continue to lead the police force in connecting with the loyalty and community to protect Hong Kong’s national security.”

The three newly elected officials did not take any questions from reporters, and left Lam to confront the press. Jimmy Lai, the founder of the media group, was arrested last August and is in jail awaiting trial, according to the National Security Act that China imposed on the territory a year ago.

The reopening took place one day after the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily published its latest edition, after its editors and executives were arrested and goods frozen. Lee described the detainees as “criminals”, saying “normal journalists” should not be associated with them.

At the press conference, Lame told the media that his vision for the city was to defend the “legitimate rights” of “citizens,” but that the law would also be strictly enforced.

The controversial national security law that China has imposed on Hong Kong punishes crimes of secession, sedition and collusion with foreign forces with life imprisonment.

Beijing has said the law is necessary to deal with separatism and foreign interference, but critics say the law is being used to chase dissidents and activists, accusing several people of the law.

It calls for US sanctions

Recent events in Hong Kong, including the closure of the Apple Daily newspaper, have prompted two U.S. senior senators to impose sanctions on President Joe Biden, suggesting that foreign banks were among the accused.

Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a member of the committee, said the Hong Kong Autonomy Act passed last year requires the U.S. secretary of state to identify foreign people in Congress, including foreign businesses. “Materially helps” the inability of the people of Hong Kong to enjoy the freedom of freedom of assembly, conference, press or independent rule of law. “

“It seems very likely that there will be tremendous reactions from Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily to the large number of foreigners to whom Article 5 of the Hong Kong Autonomy Act applies,” he says in the letter.

The letter was reported last month by Reuters news agency Lee, who had just been appointed general secretary. he sent letters to Apple Lai owner Jimmy Lai and HSBC and Citibank branches, threatening a seven-year prison sentence for his relationship with the billionaire’s accounts in the city.

Leik ordered the branches to freeze Lai’s accounts, saying they had “apparently” done so in a text letter from senators made available by Reuters.

Earlier this week, about 500 police officers searched the Apple Daily and said in a letter that the Hong Kong Security Bureau had then ordered Apple Daily banks to freeze the newspaper’s assets, “shutting them down directly.”

“We urge your administration to enforce the Hong Kong Autonomy Act in a general manner in accordance with the injustice imposed on Jimmy Lai and forced Apple Daily to close immediately,” he said.

The senators ’legislation imposes mandatory sanctions on individuals and entities that directly harm Hong Kong’s autonomy, and secondary sanctions on banks that do business with these entities and individuals.

In their letter, the senators added that they understood that the orders had been given to foreign banks in an out-of-court manner, by a single official outside the judicial system and without any criminal charges or summonses.

“These orders establish the impression of many that the Rule of Law is no longer in Hong Kong,” they said.

Last month, a CITI spokesman said in response to the Reuters story that the bank must comply with all laws and regulations in the countries in which it operates.

HSBC declined to comment, but CEO Noel Quinn said earlier that the bank must comply with police requests from any country in the world.

On Thursday, Biden said the closure of Apple Daily was a “sad day for media freedom,” and said China was “intensifying repression,” swearing it would maintain support for people in China-dominated territory.

He did not mention any intention to impose further sanctions on the repression.

The Chinese government has said the closure is a “systematic dissolution” of the civil and political rights of people in the city, Human Rights Watch said.

“People in Hong Kong are seeing the Chinese government taking swift steps to destroy its democratic society,” said Maya Wang, China’s chief researcher at HRW.

HRW said Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong are “coordinated and comprehensive and seem to be mostly a free city to become a city that will follow the line of the Chinese Community Party”.

In March, the Biden administration identified 24 Chinese officials previously sanctioned by the Trump administration for reducing Hong Kong’s high level of autonomy.

He said foreign financial institutions that are aware of important transactions with this can face penalties.

However, in a final report to Congress that was required by the bill in May, the Treasury Department did not identify any foreign financial institutions that did business with these people.