China Sanctions, Countermeasures and Unilateral Restrictive Measures Policy

INTRODUCTION. This article examines Hong Kong’s sanctions, countermeasures and unilateral restrictions policy and practices existing within and determined by the China’s approach in this sphere. Although Hong Kong, as a special (autonomous) administrative region of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), should strictly abide by the basic tenets of PRC’s policy – recognition of legitimacy of only United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) sanctions, legality of countermeasures introduced in response to delinquent acts of international actors and formal and rhetorical rejection of unilateral restrictive measures, – the autonomy has certain distinct characteristics in this area which reflects a special status of Hong Kong in the constitutional and political system of the PRC.
MATERIALS AND METHODS. The author used publicly available documents and materials of the United Nations, PRC’s government bodies, Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and executive bodies, academic sources of Russian, Hong Kong, Mainland Chinese and Western scholars and experts, as well as periodical publications, to examine how the sanctions, countermeasures and unilateral restrictions regime of Hong Kong works and what distinguishes Hong Kong’s policy in this area from China’s. For the purposes of this study the author employed general methods of scholarly research and special methods of legal research.
RESEARCH RESULTS. Led by the foreign policy imperatives of China, Hong Kong must adhere to UNSC sanctions recognized and implemented by the PRC. However, Hong Kong is not legally bound to comply with China’s countermeasure and unilateral restrictive measures (official or informal). Likewise unilateral restrictive measures imposed by Western states have no legal force in Hong Kong. Yet, paradoxical it may sound, Hong Kong business community (linked with the West by numerous long-standing business ties), foremost banking and financial sector, do in fact by and large adhere to such unilateral restrictive measures because of fear of being targeted by Western secondary restrictive measures. Thus, Hong Kong constitutes a subsystem of rules, regulations and practices on implementation of sanctions, countermeasures and unilateral restrictive measures, on the one side, premised on the principles and rules of the PRC, and, on the other side, detached and distinguished from regulations and practices of China in this area. Considering Hong Kong business circles’ keenness to comply with Western unilateral restrictive measures, including anti-Russian restrictive measures, and go even further by halting all transactions and relations with any person having a nexus to jurisdictions heavily targeted by the Western unilateral restrictive measures, this autonomous region of China is and will continue to be quite a difficult place for Russian entrepreneurs to do business.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. This study demonstrated distinct features of the Hong Kong’s regime of sanctions, countermeasures and unilateral restrictions which one may rightly classify as a special subsystem of China’s regime. The author came to the following conclusions. First, Hong Kong shall implement UNSC sanctions in accordance with the instructions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC but on the basis of autonomy’s own laws and regulations. Second, Hong Kong, as a non-sovereign entity, does not impose its own countermeasures or unilateral restrictive measures on sovereign states (institution of such measures falls squarely within the responsibility of the PRC central government). Third, anti-unilateral restrictive measures laws and regulations, enacted by the PRC, are not applied in Hong Kong unless they are added to Annex III to the Basic Law (mini-constitution) of Hong Kong. Fourth, countermeasures and unilateral restrictive measures instituted by China against third countries in compliance with her antiunilateral restrictive measures laws and regulations, as well as unofficial bans, have no legal force in the autonomy, except prohibitions on entry of persons, targeted by China, to Hong Kong. Fifth, a large number of Hong Kong companies (foremost local, Mainland Chinese and foreign banks and financial institutions) with long-standing trade and economic connections with Western counterparts routinely comply with Western, mostly the United States, unilateral restrictive measures (including unilateral restrictive measures against Hong Kong) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (a de facto central bank of the autonomy) even makes it mandatory for the financial institutions, operating in the territory, to comply with Western unilateral restrictive measures.

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