By Richard Hanania and Benjamin H. Friedman
Recently, in response to a proposed national security law pertaining to Hong Kong, U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced that he would end the administrative region’s special trading status as a way to punish China.
Advocates for the move argue that since the original U.S. law was premised on Hong Kong retaining sufficient autonomy from Beijing, revoking Hong Kong’s special status is automatically justified.
Yet while the president has the statutory authority to treat Hong Kong as under Beijing’s control, doing so in effect punishes the city for being victimized and is likely to be counterproductive, resulting in heavy economic losses for Hong Kong and U.S. firms without changing Chinese behavior. Being on the morally right side in spirit doesn’t make the proposed U.S. policy sensible.
This piece was originally published in The Diplomat on June 8, 2020. Read more HERE.