China says U.S. may let Hong Kong trade order expire
Beijing said Washington confirmed it would not renew a Trump-era order that ended Hong Kong’s special U.S. trade treatment.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
China said Friday that the United States may allow a Trump-era order ending Hong Kong’s special trade treatment to lapse, a move that could ease one point of friction between Washington and Beijing. The signal comes as the two governments manage trade ties after President Donald Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing two months ago.
China’s Commerce Ministry said the United States had made commitments on Hong Kong and other issues during U.S.-China trade talks in Madrid last year. In a statement responding to media questions, the ministry said Washington recently confirmed to Beijing that the president’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization would end.
The ministry described the move as a step toward carrying out understandings reached in bilateral economic and trade discussions. It said China welcomed the action.
The practical effect of the order’s expiration was not immediately clear. The White House directed questions about the lapse to the Treasury Department, according to the Associated Press.
The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control said Friday that the national emergency declared under the executive order had expired. OFAC said it removed people who had been sanctioned under that order from the related sanctions list.
OFAC also said people who remain sanctioned under a separate Hong Kong-related law were placed on another sanctions list. The agency’s statement showed Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee and former leader Carrie Lam were removed from the first list and added to the second.
Trump signed the executive order in July 2020, during his first term, after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong. The order said Hong Kong was no longer autonomous enough to receive different treatment from mainland China under certain U.S. laws.
The order ended preferential treatment for Hong Kong where allowed by law and where the administration determined it served U.S. national security, foreign policy and economic interests. It was renewed for one year in July 2025 before the latest expiration.
Beijing has defended the national security law as necessary to restore order after large anti-government protests in Hong Kong in 2019. Those demonstrations became one of the most serious challenges to China’s Communist Party and Hong Kong’s government since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Critics of the law say civil liberties promised to Hong Kong under the handover framework have eroded. Six years after the law took effect, prominent activists, including former media tycoon Jimmy Lai, have been jailed under it, according to the Associated Press.
The possible shift also comes ahead of an expected U.S. visit by Xi later this year. Earlier this month, a pastor from a well-known underground church who had been detained in China in October was released after Trump raised his case with Xi, according to the Associated Press.
Hong Kong’s government said it had noted what it called a positive change in U.S. policy toward the city. In a statement, the government said protecting Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability serves the interests of China and the United States, and said it hoped Washington would respect China’s sovereignty and Hong Kong’s rule of law while resuming normal trade and economic exchanges.
This story draws on original reporting from NPR.