US Sanctions Chinese, Hong Kong Officials for Undermining City’s Freedoms, Persecuting Activists Abroad

The action targets the officials for their role in ‘coercing, arresting, detaining, or imprisoning’ dissidents in Hong Kong and abroad.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali (not pictured), in Georgetown, Guyana, on March 27, 2025. Nathan Howard/AFP via Getty Images

WASHINGTON—The United States on March 31 sanctioned six Beijing and Hong Kong officials for abuses in the China-ruled city and efforts of transnational repression on U.S. soil, the first such step that the new Trump administration has taken.

The action was coupled with the release of an annual State Department report submitted to Congress, which found new Beijing actions that directly threaten U.S. interests while violating the regime’s commitments to not interfere with Hong Kong’s autonomy, independent judiciary, and fundamental freedoms until 2047.

The report, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, demonstrates that “Beijing has broken its promises to the people of Hong Kong.”

“Beijing and Hong Kong officials have used Hong Kong national security laws extraterritorially to intimidate, silence, and harass 19 pro-democracy activists who were forced to flee overseas, including a U.S. citizen and four other U.S. residents,” the State Department said in a fact sheet.

It said the news sanctions target those “who have engaged in actions or policies that threaten to further erode the autonomy of Hong Kong in contravention of China’s commitments, and in connection with acts of transnational repression.”

The people named on the sanctions list include Dong Jingwei, director of Beijing’s Office for Safeguarding National Security and former vice minister of China’s top espionage agency, the Ministry of Public Security, with experience leading counterintelligence work. The ministry has played a key part in hunting down dissidents outside of China and directing covert influence operations overseas.

The other five—Sonny Au Chi Kwong, Dick Wong Chung Chun, Margaret Chiu Wing La, Raymond Siu Chak Yee, and Paul Lam Ting Kwok—are Hong Kong officials in the police or national security field. All face sanctions for partaking in “coercing, arresting, detaining, or imprisoning of individuals” or helping to develop and implement Hong Kong’s broad National Security Law, which criminalizes subversion, collusion with foreign forces, and terrorism with up to life imprisonment.

Hong Kong’s authorities in the early hours issued a statement protesting the sanctions, calling it an “attempt to intimidate the relevant officials safeguarding national security” and maintaining that the government isn’t “intimidated by such despicable behaviour.”

The State Department issued the sanctions based on a 2020 executive order from the first Trump administration. Democratic and Republican lawmakers had urged the Biden administration to sanction all six. The bipartisan House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which made its push in December 2023, said on Monday that the sanctions are a “crucial step in the right direction.”

Hong Kong’s biggest national security trial took place in November 2024, which saw 45 activists get sentences of up to 10 years in jail. A Hong Kong court in August 2024 convicted former editors of Stand News, a local pro-democracy outlet that disbanded after a national security raid. The court found both guilty of publishing seditious materials and later sentenced them to 11 and 21 months in prison.

Citing the law, Hong Kong officials also issued bounties against six democracy campaigners and canceled passports for seven more, five of whom reside in the United States.

The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a U.S. charity, applauded the State Department announcement, noting that it was the first time since July 2021 that the United States has issued any sanctions over the CCP’s degradation of the city’s autonomy.

The organization’s policy and advocacy coordinator Frances Hui thanked the State Department for “sending a clear message that repression will not go unanswered” and expressed hope that the United States will begin a “sustained effort to hold perpetrators accountable.”

“The officials named today are directly responsible for enforcing draconian policies, imprisoning pro-democracy activists, and expanding their persecution across borders by placing bounties on those of us forced into exile—including myself,” she said in a statement.

With many of these Hong Kongers having “endured relentless pressure and threats through transnational repression,” she said, it “truly means a great deal to see the U.S. taking the lead in holding accountable the officials who orchestrated these actions.”

Anna Kwok, executive director for Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, said the “long-awaited” action was meaningful for her and 18 other pro-democracy activists targeted on Hong Kong’s wanted list.

“Hong Kongers—on the ground and around the world—have been subjected to ongoing harassment and surveillance,” she said, pointing to the recent circulation of a letter linked to Beijing that called for bounty hunting of a Hong Kong democracy advocate living in exile in Australia.

“Repressive actions must be met with consequences,” she said, urging countries worldwide to follow the steps of the United States.