US treads carefully in responding to Hong Kong’s new national security law

By DIDI TANG
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has denounced Hong Kong’s new national security law as a tool to potentially silence dissent both at home and abroad, but so far the action from Washington has been notably muted. This has disappointed those fighting for the Chinese territory’s democracy and freedoms. Since the law’s swift passage on March 19, the U.S. has announced visa restrictions on an unspecified number of unnamed Hong Kong officials but taken no further action. Analysts suggest the Biden administration may not want to rock relations with China in an election year, especially when the impact of the law might take a while to manifest itself and any punitive U.S. measures would be unlikely to bring about meaningful change.