Beijing has responded in a tit-for-tat diplomatic row with Washington over a national security law aimed at cracking down on US-backed opposition groups across the special administrative region, with fresh measures passed on Monday, Chinese state media reported.
Beijing plans to sanction four people due to their “egregious” behaviour of meddling in the domestic affairs of Hong Kong, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday as cited by the Global Times.
Officials facing fresh sanctions include John Knaus, senior director for Asia at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Manpreet Singh Anad, Asia-Pacific regional director at the National Democratic Institute (NDI), among others.
All four people will not be allowed to enter China as well as Hong Kong and Macao, according to the report.
The NED has openly backed Hong Kong opposition groups such as the Solidarity Center and Hong Kong Justice Center, and Demosisto, who hosts opposition figure Joshua Wong, among others, and has also spent millions on numerous projects in the European Union, including opposition support for protestors in Belarus, according to analysts.
Further backing has been given to opposition backing in Venezuela and Bolivia amid major political coups in recent years.
The news comes after China slapped sanctions on 11 US lawmakers and heads of non-governmental organisations such as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth, NED president Carl…
