The President's Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization
The President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization (Executive Order 13936) declares that Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to justify differential treatment under U.S. law, and it invokes national emergency authorities to roll back many of the special status and exemptions that previously applied to Hong Kong. Issued in response to China’s imposition of a new national security framework for Hong Kong, the order seeks to suspend or eliminate certain preferential policies and to impose sanctions and other restrictive measures against individuals and entities tied to actions that undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy. It directs U.S. agencies to take rapid steps to implement these changes, including changes to immigration rules, export controls, and other federal policies. It also authorizes the U.S. Treasury to impose targeted sanctions and to block property, with accompanying visa and entry restrictions for those connected to the actions targeted by the order. In short, the order shifts Hong Kong away from its longstanding separate-treatment framework by clawing back a range of regulatory, trade, immigration, and financial preferences, while empowering the executive branch to sanction actors linked to the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and to curtail U.S.-Hong Kong cooperation in various areas.
Key Points
- 1Declares a national emergency and determines Hong Kong no longer warrants differential treatment under U.S. law due to actions undermining its autonomy, in particular China’s new security law for Hong Kong.
- 2Suspends or terminates a range of statutes and preferences that previously treated Hong Kong differently from mainland China, including immigration, export controls, and defense-related provisions (as listed in Sec. 2).
- 3Requires federal agencies to act within 15 days to implement the order, including amending regulations, ending export-license exceptions and other HK-specific exemptions, terminating certain U.S.-HK agreements, and ending training for HK police at State Department academies, among other actions (Sec. 3).
- 4Blocks property and imposes sanctions on individuals or entities determined to be involved in undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy or related human-rights abuses, with authority to prohibit certain transactions (Sec. 4-6) and to restrict entry of blocked persons and their immediate family (Sec. 7).
- 5Authorizes the Treasury, in coordination with the State Department, to implement sanctions, regulate commerce, and report to Congress on the emergency; it also preserves a mechanism to reconsider if Hong Kong regains sufficient autonomy (Sec. 12-15).