Rubio tweeted Monday morning, “Last month #China banned me. Today they sanctioned me. I don’t want to be paranoid but I am starting to think they don’t like me.”
OK, so if Rubio was already banned last month from traveling to China, then what was the substance of these new sanctions?
China didn’t specify but the action was a tit for tat against similar US sanctions imposed on 11 Chinese citizens which forbid travel to the US and freezes any assets they may have in the US. If Rubio has no assets in China or plans to visit China, the sanctions are merely symbolic.
This is a nitpick, but I don’t think it’s that easy for Mainland China to bank foreigners from visiting Hong Kong. As far as immigration and visa matters are concerned, Hong Kong largely operates as if it were an independent country with its autonomous visa policy and legislation. The citizens of most Western countries can travel visa free to Hong Kong but need a visa for Mainland China, and even Mainland Chinese citizens who do not have right of abode in Hong Kong need a Hong Kong visa to travel there.
Hong Kong has a special status because the Chinese have agreed to give it one and mostly honoued that.
HK immigration laws are man made laws, not the laws of physics.
That’s true, but it doesn’t debunk what I said. It still means that for the Mainland authorities, banning a third country national from Hong Kong would require a severe interference with Hong Kong’s autonomy, and that would be politically sensitive and probably something Beijing would shy away from after the riots caused by the deportation bill (which touched upon the same issue, Mainland authorities underminding the autonomy of the SAR).
Previously, that might have been true but there are reports that foreign journalist visas are now being processed through the national security unit now. The Foreign Correspondant’s Club of HK has published an open letter objecting to this change but it seems like HK’s de facto autonomy over immigration is now in the process of being dismantled.
And why is that? Because Western countries typically impose visa requirements on non-Westerners? That is true, but Western countries don’t have a practice of denying visas as a means to silence criticism from abroad.
