Hong Kong File Photo: Xinhua

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that China would sanction five US individuals, including former US commerce minister Wilbur Ross, US-China Economic and Security Review Commission president Carolyn Bartholomew, and Jonathan Stivers, former Staff Director of Congressional-Executive Commission on China, in response to the recent wrong move by the US side to sanction five Chinese officials over Hong Kong affairs. 

In July, the US sanctioned seven Chinese officials including five deputy directors of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong, when it issued a so-called advisory warning to American businesses, which fully exposed the US' ill-intentioned political attempt to contain China by playing the Hong Kong card, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during a routine press conference on Thursday. 

In response to the wrong acts of the US, China decided to take countermeasures in accordance with the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law to sanction the five US individuals by banning them from entering China and freezing their assets in China. 

In addition to Ross, Bartholomew and Stivers, the other US individuals sanctioned include DoYun Kim from the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and senior program manager of the International Republican Institute (IRI) Adam Joseph King, according to Zhao. Besides banning them from entering China, including the Hong Kong and Macao SARs, those Americans sanctioned are also not allowed to have transactions with Chinese citizens and institutions. 

The five US individuals were already put on China's sanctions list in July, while it's the first time that detailed sanction measures have been announced.

Zhao also urged the US to revoke its so-called sanctions on Chinese individuals and stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs. China will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and dignity, he said. 

Global Times