US lets Hong Kong normalization order lapse as Xi visit looms
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- China's Commerce Ministry said the U.S. confirmed it will not renew the President's Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization, calling it 'an important step in fulfilling the consensus reached during the bilateral economic and trade talks' in Madrid last year.
- The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control said the national emergency declared in the order had expired and delisted people sanctioned under it, but moved those still sanctioned under another Hong Kong-related act onto a different list.
- Hong Kong leader John Lee and predecessor Carrie Lam were removed from the original list but simultaneously added to a second sanctions list tied to a separate act.
- Trump signed the executive order in July 2020 in response to Beijing's national security law for Hong Kong and last renewed it in July 2025; the lapse comes two months after he met Xi Jinping in Beijing.
- The Hong Kong government issued a statement calling it a 'positive shift in U.S. policy' and said safeguarding the city's prosperity serves both countries' common interests.
- Despite the thaw, leading pro-democracy figures including media tycoon Jimmy Lai remain imprisoned under the 2020 national security law, which critics say eroded the Western-style civil liberties Beijing pledged to maintain for 50 years after the 1997 handover.
Why it matters: China's welcoming of the lapsed order marks a partial U.S.-China thaw on Hong Kong, but Lee and Lam's removal from one list and addition to another shows the legal architecture around the 2020 national security law is being reshuffled, not dismantled. Preferential trade treatment is restored in principle, while activists like Jimmy Lai remain imprisoned — keeping human rights friction live ahead of Xi's expected U.S. visit.
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