China has issued sanctions against 11 Americans, including Republican senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
It is a reaction to American punitive measures against several Chinese in response to the drastic Chinese measures in them until recently autonomous metropolis Hong Kong.
Beijing said it is issuing sanctions “against Americans who have misbehaved in issues affecting Hong Kong”.
China also includes the chief of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, and the leader of an American foundation that claims to promote democracy, the National Endowment for Democracy.
On Monday, nine people were arrested in China based on a new security law that the People’s Republic has imposed on the autonomous region of Hong Kong.
For example, media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, known as an influential advocate for democratization in Hong Kong, was handcuffed along with one of his sons at his media company headquarters.
Hong Kong enjoys autonomy based on the arrangements made when the British colony was transferred to Beijing’s authority in 1997.
Autonomous Hong Kong thus has a Western-style legal system. This offers rights to arrested suspects, while in the rest of China suspects can be almost sure that they will be convicted.
A plan by the Hong Kong government to facilitate extradition to the People’s Republic sparked massive protests in mid-March last year and plunged Hong Kong’s financial centre into crisis.