US revokes Hong Kong special status after China law!

• 'No reasonable person can assert that HK maintains a high degree of autonomy from China'.

The US on Wednesday revoked Hong Kong's special status under US law, paving the way to strip trading privileges for the financial hub as Washington accused China of trampling on the territory's autonomy.

Hours before China's rubber-stamp parliament was set to take a key vote on a new Hong Kong security law that has sparked protests, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo certified to Congress that Hong Kong "does not continue to warrant treatment" under US laws that it has enjoyed even after its handover to China in 1997.
Under a law passed last year to support Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters, the US administration must certify that the territory still enjoys freedoms promised by Beijing when negotiating with Britain to take back the colony.

"No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground," Pompeo said in a statement.

Although the administration could still waive consequences, the US law says that Hong Kong would lose the trading advantages, including lower tariffs, that it enjoys with the world's largest economy.