The stability and sound governance of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) are not in line with the strategic goals and fundamental interests of the U.S., the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the HKSAR said, after the U.S. extended sanctions on Hong Kong.   

On Monday, the White House issued the so-called Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Hong Kong, which gives the U.S. president largely unchecked powers to impose economic sanctions on external entities deemed to constitute a significant threat to America – a move the commissioner's office called a blatant intervention in China's internal affairs.

It said the move against Hong Kong has again exposed America's power politics and hegemonic thinking.

The U.S.' unilateral sanctions have no basis in international law and no legitimacy at all, the commissioner's office said, adding that no matter how the United States sugarcoats its sanctions, it cannot conceal its illegal nature of seriously violating the principles of international law and the basic norms governing international relations.

Over the past 25 years since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, with the full support of the central government and the common efforts of the HKSAR government and all social sectors, the practice of "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong has been a universally recognized success, it said.

Sanctions that attempt to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and undermine Hong Kong's prosperity and stability will never succeed, and the attempt to play the "Hong Kong card" to curb China's development is just wishful thinking, it said.

(With input from Xinhua)

(Cover photo: The Golden Bauhinia Square in south China's Hong Kong. /Xinhua)