In Peru last weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly told President Joe Biden that U.S. human rights advocacy was now a “red line” Beijing considers off limits. This was a message for more than just Biden — it was aimed at President-elect Donald Trump, as well.

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For Trump, that message might seem like an easier sell. Xi knows Trump has shown little interest in human rights in the past. He’s betting that Trump will stay true to form and prioritize tariffs and trade imbalances over the broader battle for freedom. But as many of Trump’s incoming advisers understand, Hong Kong’s fate is tied to the United States’ interests. Trump should realize that his larger China strategy can’t succeed if the United States ignores Hong Kong’s decline.

While Xi was traveling, his proxies in Hong Kong handed down draconian prison sentences to 45 former student leaders, activists and ordinary citizens whose only “crimes” were defending the freedoms Hong Kong had been promised. Hong Kong authorities then turned to the long-awaited public trial of Jimmy Lai, a British citizen who led the city’s largest media company until it was forced to close. Like the student leaders, Lai is being prosecuted under new national security laws in Hong Kong, imposed by Beijing, that have criminalized free expression.

Brazenly, the Hong Kong government invited business leaders from around the world to a financial summit this week to bear witness to these latest attempts to snuff out the city’s once-proud autonomy. The timing of these events is no coincidence. Xi is attempting to create a new frame for the U.S.-China relationship while Washington is distracted by a presidential transition.

“Xi Jinping is taking the first step to shape the U.S.-China narrative and discourse before the new U.S. administration comes in,” Hong Kong activist leader Joey Siu told me. “That’s a big middle finger to the United States, to both the Biden and the Trump administrations.”

Biden’s State Department announced it is “taking steps” to impose visa restrictions on unnamed Hong Kong officials in response to the sentences, which condemned these political prisoners to up to 10 years. But this falls way short of what the United States should do to show that the international community still cares about the city’s fate and the more than 1,900 political prisoners languishing in Hong Kong jails.

Hong Kongers who escaped ahead of arrest — such as Siu, an American citizen who now lives in the United States — have been targeted by China’s long arm of transnational repression, even having bounties placed on their heads. They are pushing for Congress to pass legislation that would place restrictions on Hong Kong’s three diplomatic outposts inside the United States, known as Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices. An October report by the Hong Kong Democracy Council detailed how these outposts are used to spread Beijing’s propaganda, fund influence networks and surveil the activities of Hong Kongers on U.S. soil.

The legislation was sponsored last yearby Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Trump’s choice to be secretary of state. “Hong Kong unjustly detains political prisoners at a rate only surpassed by a handful of authoritarian countries, such as Belarus, Cuba, and Burma,” Rubio said when introducing the bill. “The [trade offices] are complicit in persecuting them.” Rubio has also sponsored legislation that would grant refugee status to thousands of Hong Kongers who fled the crackdown and are living in the United States without clear immigration status.

Rubio’s nomination, along with the appointment of China hawks — such as incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz — gives Hong Kongers some hope that Trump will view Hong Kong as not just a distraction but as a key to his strategy of confronting China.

“All eyes are on Trump’s China policy,” said Sunny Cheung, a former Hong Kong student leader who now works at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank. “This is a pivotal moment for Trump to differentiate his approach from Biden’s by demonstrating stronger measures of deterrence and imposing higher costs on Beijing.”

What’s at stake is beyond just human rights. As Beijing dismantles Hong Kong’s freedoms, it is also dismantling the rule of law — the very foundation upon which fair and transparent business depends. The city’s autonomy has historically been a buffer against China’s worst impulses. But now, the city is a haven for circumventing U.S. sanctions against bad actors, including Russia, Iran and North Korea. Global companies operating in Hong Kong can no longer trust that contracts will be honored or disputes adjudicated fairly.

Trump should also realize that Hong Kong is central to his own economic agenda. Trump has often touted tariffs as a way to force China into fairer trade practices. Yet tariffs alone won’t achieve that goal if Hong Kong falls completely under Beijing’s thumb. If Hong Kong is lost, so, too, is a key leverage point. Trump doesn’t have to become a human rights crusader overnight, but he should recognize that standing up for Hong Kong’s freedoms aligns with his own priorities: protecting American businesses, countering China’s authoritarian ambitions, and securing a fairer trading relationship.

Trump once said that “the future does not belong to globalists.” Perhaps he was right. But the future also doesn’t belong to those who ignore the implications when autocrats crush the hopes of millions. The fate of Hong Kong is a test — not just for Xi, but for Trump himself.

Source: The Washington Post