China avoids top Trump aides in HK retaliatory sanctions

Bloomberg

China said it will sanction 11 Americans in retaliation for similar measures imposed by the US, but the list doesn’t include any members of the Trump administration.
Those sanctioned include Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey; Congressman Chris Smith; Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth; National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman; and Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a briefing in Beijing on Monday.
“In response to the US’s wrong behaviours, China has decided to impose sanctions on those individuals who behaved badly on Hong Kong-related issues,” Zhao said. He did not specify what the sanctions would entail.
China last month announced separate sanctions against US officials including Rubio and Cruz, in what was seen as a mostly symbolic attempt to retaliate over America’s steps to punish Beijing for its treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. Roth was refused entry to Hong Kong in January, after months of pro-democracy protests rocked the city.
Beijing in December had pledged sanctions on some rights organisations hit on Monday including HRW, Freedom House and the National Endowment for Democracy, after President Donald Trump signed a law supporting Hong Kong’s protesters. The US said that it was placing sanctions on 11 Chinese officials and their allies in Hong Kong, including Chief Executive Carrie Lam, over their roles in curtailing political freedoms in the former British colony.
The others included Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of China’s State Council, and Chris Tang, commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force, which has come under global criticism for tactics used against pro-democracy protesters.
Lam was sanctioned because she is “directly responsible for implementing Beijing’s policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes,” the US Treasury Department said.

HK media tycoon arrested in blow to democracy camp
Bloomberg

Hong Kong police arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raided the offices of his
flagship newspaper, the highest-profile case yet against
the city’s democracy activists under a national security
law that has fueled US-China tensions.
Lai was shown handcuffed as he was taken away by officers from his home. When a reporter asked Lai for his views on the arrest, he answered: “What views do I have? They want to arrest me.” Apple Daily, which is under Lai’s media network Next Digital Ltd and the biggest pro-democracy paper in Hong Kong, reported that nearly 200 officers were entering its offices.
Police said nine people ages 23 to 72 were arrested on suspicion of “breaches” of the
security legislation, with offenses including collusion with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security.