Tag: U.S

U.S. supports blocking Russia and Belarus from 2024 Olympics as war rages in Ukraine

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Should the International Olympic Committee allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate, the use of official Russian or Belarusian flags, emblems or anthems should be prohibited, Jean-Pierre said during her Thursday press briefing.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the International Olympic Committee to ban the two countries’ athletes from competing in the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. But last week, the IOC released a statement saying, “No athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport,” and proposing that participants from Russia and Belarus could compete as “neutral athletes.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 3, 2023
U.S. resettles former al-Qaida courier from Guantanamo to Belize

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But finding Khan a new home proved difficult. Since the end of his sentence, U.S. officials have struggled to find a place that was willing to take in Khan and his family. The Biden administration said in August that the State Department had approached 11 countries, though it did not name any of them.
The U.S. finally found a solution in Belize.
“The government of Belize has been super helpful to us,” the State Department official said. “We asked them to do something that is admittedly difficult from a political perspective. It’s hard for any country.” The official was granted anonymity to speak freely about the details of the diplomatic negotiations.
The Biden administration sought out several different agencies to certify that Khan poses no danger to the U.S. or its allies, the official said.
“They will accept him on [that] premise,” the official said of Belize. “We don’t do the transfers just to do transfers. I want to be clear about that. It’s an interagency process. We all do agree that not only is the individual ready for transfer, but that [Belize] is capable and willing.” The embassy of Belize in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nineteen other detainees are eligible for transfer from Guantanamo Bay, according to the U.S. Before Khan, the U.S. transferred Saifullah Paracha to Pakistan. A total of 34 people are still being held at Guantanamo.
Khan, who was first taken into custody in Pakistan in 2003, detailed his torture by the CIA at a hearing in October 2021. Military officers on the jury condemned the torture in a clemency letter published by the New York Times, calling it a “stain on the moral fiber of America.” He was granted that clemency in March of 2022, when Col. Jeffrey Wood, the convening authority for military commissions, reduced Khan’s official sentence to 10 years, time he had already served.
“The tribunal had actually written a letter on his behalf to say that they thought that he was the guy who could really find a new home and a new lease on life and acknowledged that yes, he was a good candidate for transfer,” the senior State Department official said.

Khan, who went to school in Maryland, sued the Biden administration last summer for continuing to hold him even after he finished his sentence. His legal team suggested Khan be transferred to the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay until a country agreed to resettle him.
Khan “continues to be imprisoned at Guantanamo, beyond the expiration of his sentence, and without foreseeable end,” the complaint filed by Khan and his lawyer read. “Petitioner’s conditions of confinement at Guantanamo also have not improved since his sentence ended; in certain respects, they have become more punitive.”
Khan’s lawyers declined to comment.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 2, 2023
U.S., Philippines agree to larger American military presence

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As part of the agreement, the U.S. has allocated $82 million toward infrastructure improvements at five current EDCA sites, and expand its military presence to four new sites in “strategic areas of the country,” according to the statement.
Austin arrived in the Philippines on Tuesday from South Korea, where he said the U.S. would increase its deployment of advanced weapons such as fighter jets and bombers to the Korean Peninsula to bolster joint training with South Korean forces in response to North Korea’s growing nuclear threat.
In the Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia and a key front in the U.S. battle against terrorism, Austin visited southern Zamboanga city and met Filipino generals and a small contingent of U.S. counterterrorism forces based in a local military camp, regional Philippine military commander Lt. Gen. Roy Galido said. The more than 100 U.S. military personnel have provided intelligence and combat advice for years to Filipino troops battling a decades-long Muslim insurgency, which has considerably eased but remains a key threat.
More recently, U.S. forces have intensified and broadened joint training focusing on combat readiness and disaster response with Filipino troops on the nation’s western coast, which faces the South China Sea, and in its northern Luzon region across the sea from the Taiwan Strait.
American forces were granted access to five Philippine military camps, where they could rotate indefinitely under the 2014 EDCA defense pact.
In October, the U.S. sought access for a larger number of its forces and weapons in an additional five military camps, mostly in the north. That request would be high on the agenda in Austin’s meetings, according to Philippine officials.
“The visit of Secretary Austin definitely, obviously will have to do with many of the ongoing discussions on the EDCA sites,” Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Romualdez said at a news briefing.
Austin was scheduled to hold talks Thursday with his Philippine counterpart, Carlito Galvez Jr., and National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano, Romualdez said. Austin will separately call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in June and has since taken steps to boost relations with Washington.

The U.S. defense chief is the latest senior official to visit the Philippines after Vice President Kamala Harris in November in a sign of warming ties after a strained period under Marcos’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte had nurtured cozy ties with China and Russia and at one point threatened to sever ties with Washington, kick visiting American forces out and abrogate a major defense pact.
Romualdez said the Philippines needed to cooperate with Washington to deter any escalation of tensions between China and self-ruled Taiwan — not only because of the treaty alliance but to help prevent a major conflict.
“We’re in a Catch-22 situation. If China makes a move on Taiwan militarily, we’ll be affected — and all ASEAN region, but mostly us, Japan and South Korea,” Romualdez told The Associated Press, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the 10-nation regional bloc that includes the Philippines.
The Philippines and ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam, along with Taiwan, have been locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. The U.S. has been regarded as a crucial counterweight to China in the region and has pledged to come to the defense of the Philippines if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under attack in the contested waters.
The Philippines used to host two of the largest U.S. Navy and Air Force bases outside the American mainland. The bases were shut down in the early 1990s after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension, but American forces returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement.
The Philippine Constitution prohibits the permanent basing of foreign troops and their involvement in local combat.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 2, 2023
U.S. announces new sanctions against Russian sanctions evasion network

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“Russia’s desperate attempts to utilize proxies to circumvent U.S. sanctions demonstrate that sanctions have made it much harder and costlier for Russia’s military-industrial complex to re-supply Putin’s war machine,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said. | Nathan Howard/AP Photo
The Treasury announced sanctions on Wednesday against 22 people it says have helped Russia obtain weapons and evade sanctions imposed on the Kremlin and its allies since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.
The sanctions target the network’s leader, Russian arms dealer Igor Zimenkov, as well as his son and several members of their network, for supplying Russia with “high-technology devices.” Zimenkov and his associates have “been involved in multiple deals for Russian cybersecurity and helicopter sales” and maintain close relationships with the Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport, according to the Treasury.
“Russia’s desperate attempts to utilize proxies to circumvent U.S. sanctions demonstrate that sanctions have made it much harder and costlier for Russia’s military-industrial complex to re-supply Putin’s war machine,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement. “Targeting proxies is one of many steps that Treasury and our coalition of partners have taken, and continue to take, to tighten sanctions enforcement against Russia’s defense sector, its benefactors, and its supporters.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 1, 2023
4 key suspects in Haiti presidential slaying in U.S. custody

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The fourth suspect was identified as Colombian citizen Germán Rivera García, 44, who is among nearly two dozen former Colombian soldiers charged in the case.
Rivera, along with Solages and Vincent, face charges including conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the U.S. and providing material support and resources resulting in death, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Sanon is charged with conspiring to smuggle goods from the U.S. and providing unlawful export information. Court documents state that he allegedly shipped 20 ballistic vests to Haiti, but that the items shipped were described as “medical X-ray vests and school supplies.”
It was not immediately known if the four suspects had attorneys who could comment on the development. The men are scheduled to appear in federal court Wednesday in Miami.
A total of seven suspects in the case are now in U.S. custody. Dozens of others still languish in Haiti’s main penitentiary, which is severely overcrowded and often lacks food and water for inmates.
The case has reached a virtual standstill in Haiti, with local officials last year nominating a fifth judge to investigate the killing after four others were dismissed or resigned for personal reasons.
One judge told The Associated Press that his family asked him not to take the case because they feared for his life. Another judge stepped down after one of his assistants died under murky circumstances.
Court documents state that exactly two months before Moïse was killed, Vincent texted Solages a video of a cat “reacting alertly” to the sound of gunfire and that Solages laughed, prompting Vincent to respond: “That’s the way Jovenel will be pretty much, but (sooner) if you guys really up to it!”

The document states that Solages responded that “(this) cat will never come back,” and “trust me brother, we definitely working our final decision.”
Then in June, some 20 former Colombian soldiers were recruited to supposedly help arrest the president and protect Sanon, who envisioned himself as Haiti’s new leader. Rivera was in charge of that group, the documents state.
A day before the killing, Solages falsely told other suspects that it was a CIA operation and that the mission was to kill the president, according to the documents. Shortly before the killing, authorities said, Solages shouted that it was allegedly a DEA operation to ensure compliance from the president’s security detail.
About a year after the killing, U.S. authorities say they interviewed Solages, Vincent and Rivera while they were in Haitian custody and that they agreed to talk.
The other suspects already in U.S. custody are Rodolphe Jaar, a former U.S. government informant and a Haitian businessman who was extradited from the Dominican Republic, where he was detained in January 2022.
That same month, U.S. authorities arrested Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, a former Colombian soldier who was deported by Jamaica after fleeing there from Haiti. While en route to Colombia, he was deained by U.S. officials in Panama during a layover.
Also in January 2022, authorities arrested former Haitian Sen. John Joël Joseph, who also had fled to Jamaica.
Alfredo Izaguirre, a Miami-based lawyer for Palacios, said Tuesday’s arrival of the four other suspects will postpone the trial because they all have to be tried at the same time. He said Palacios had been prepared for the trial to begin in early March, but now it could be postponed for up to four months.
Haiti police say other high-profile suspects remain at large, including a former Supreme Court judge who authorities say was favored to seize power from Moïse instead of Sanon as originally planned. Another fugitive is Joseph Badio, alleged leader of the plot who previously worked for Haiti’s Ministry of Justice and the government’s anti-corruption unit until he was fired, police say.
Emmanuel Jeanty, an attorney for the president’s widow, Martine Moïse, who was injured in the attack and flown to the U.S. for care, did not return a message for comment.
In December, Martine Moïse tweeted that her husband — who also has been accused of corruption, which he denied — had fought against it, which resulted in his assassination. “Despite the blockages, 17 months later, the people are demanding #Justice,” she wrote.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 1, 2023
The U.S. on Israel’s far-right government: It is what it is.

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Israel remains an important ally due to its intelligence capabilities and its historical and political resonance in the United States. And Biden’s long-term goal of shifting America’s focus toward Asia will rest in part on remaining on good terms with Israeli leaders, while encouraging their efforts to improve ties with Arab states and bring more stability to the long volatile Middle East.
“The administration will go to great lengths to avoid a confrontation with Netanyahu,” said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official who took part in many Middle East peace talks. “It’s good policy to engage, and clearly, given the fact that the president is going to announce in the next several weeks or months his intention to seek a second term, it’s also good politics.”
The Biden administration is treading carefully in the new reality presented by Netanyahu’s far-right coalition. Make the visits, but downplay their importance. Meet with Netanyahu, but avoid his more extreme coalition partners. And hold onto the hope that diplomacy can reduce tensions.
The new Israeli government is dotted with religious zealots with antipathy toward Arabs, LGBTQ+ people and others. And as Blinken arrived, there were questions about whether some of these coalition leaders would further stoke recent violence.
On Thursday, Israeli security forces killed nine Palestinians in the West Bank in what Israel called a raid against a terrorist unit. The next day, a Palestinian gunman killed seven Israelis near a synagogue in east Jerusalem.
Blinken urged de-escalation. “It’s the responsibility of everyone to take steps to calm tensions rather than inflame them,” he said upon reaching Israel after a stop in Egypt.
Asked about the significance of the secretary of State’s visit, a U.S. official described it as unexceptional.
“Israel is an important ally with a new government very different from what came before. It’s normal for a secretary of State to make an early trip,” said the senior Biden administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the topic involved sensitive diplomatic issues.

But Blinken has more than meet-and-greets to deal with on his trip.
Iran is one major example. Israel views the Islamist regime, which has called for Israel’s destruction, as an existential threat.
Over the weekend, reports emerged that suspected Israeli drones had attacked a military facility in the Iranian city of Isfahan. Details of that strike, including the type of military facility targeted and whether Washington had advance notice, remain fuzzy.
Netanyahu has long been at odds with the Biden administration on exactly how to deal with Iran. He has opposed the Iran nuclear deal, which lifted many sanctions on Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program. The Biden team tried to salvage that agreement, which the Trump administration quit in 2018, but the Iranian regime’s oppression of popular protests has put the matter on hold.
But the United States is working to strengthen the ties between Israel and a few Arab countries — some of them also at odds with Iran — through the Abraham Accords. The Biden administration hopes such “integration” — as it calls it — will provide a bulwark against Iran, whose Shiite Islamist regime has harassed its neighbors for years.
Israel’s enmity with Iran also is affecting its policy toward Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Kyiv has urged Israel to donate systems to help it fend off Russian missile and other attacks. But the Israelis want to maintain good relations with Moscow because they want to be able to strike Iranian sites in Syria, where the Kremlin holds significant sway. The issue is further complicated by Iran’s decision to supply Russia with drones that the Kremlin is using against Ukraine.
Blinken pushed Israel to do more to help the Ukrainians.
“Russia’s ongoing atrocities only underscore the importance of providing support for all of Ukraine’s needs — humanitarian, economic and security — as it bravely defends its people and its very right to exist, a topic that we also discussed today,” he said alongside Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday.
Blinken did not plan to meet with the more extreme members of the Netanyahu-led coalition — some of whom have views that have alarmed many Israeli Jews, especially secular ones, not to mention Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. Netanyahu has given these allies positions that include overseeing some security forces that deal with Palestinians.
U.S. officials have, however, said they will hold Netanyahu responsible for the actions of his government, noting that he’s stressed that he’s the one in charge.
But Netanyahu, who faces corruption charges, is counting on his coalition partners to help shield him from prosecution. That makes it harder for the United States to pressure him, even though he’s had experience as a prime minister and has a long friendship with Biden.
The new Israeli government Netanyahu leads also is trying to limit the powers of the Israeli judiciary — an effort that worries Washington, though it has little ability to stop it.
Blinken nodded to all of these concerns Monday, stressing that Israel and the United States had shared ideals, among them “our support for core democratic principles and institutions, including respect for human rights” and “the equal administration of justice for all.”
Administration officials also say they will keep pushing Israel to engage with the Palestinians, and the chief U.S. diplomat is supposed to meet Tuesday with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, in the West Bank.
But Netanyahu and his Israeli colleagues appear to have zero interest in talking about peace with the Palestinians. In fact, they are taking steps to make it harder, including by promising more allowances for settlers in the West Bank, which further undermines the possibility of a Palestinian state.
The reality is that the Palestinians themselves are ill-prepared for serious negotiations. Abbas has run the Palestinian Authority for nearly two decades, and he’s unwilling to hold an election for fear of losing to rivals such as Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip. Many younger Palestinians are deeply disillusioned with their leaders’ corruption and ineptitude.
Although the Biden administration frequently speaks out in support of human rights for Palestinians, Biden has ruled out conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel on its treatment of the Palestinians — and there are few other levers Washington has to pull with an ally whose cooperation it needs in the Middle East.
While the Biden administration routinely says it supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it has “abandoned the issue in all but rhetoric,” said Khaled Elgindy, a scholar with the Middle East Institute. “Palestinians are low on the agenda.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 31, 2023
Biden seemingly rejects request to send U.S. F-16s to Ukraine

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But a U.S. official, when asked about Biden’s remark, said “there has been no serious, high-level discussion about F-16s.” In other words, it doesn’t appear that Biden’s pronouncement is the result of an internal policy review and instead is the current stance of the ultimate decision maker. That official spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal internal matters.
It’s also unclear from the video of the short exchange if the president’s “no” meant “never” or “not now.” The administration has said repeatedly that decisions about security assistance depend on battlefield realities in Ukraine. In a Thursday interview with MSNBC, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said the U.S. would be discussing fighter jets “very carefully” with Kyiv and its allies.
“We have not ruled in or out any specific systems,” he added.
Another possibility is that the U.S. could approve the re-export of F-16s from third-party countries that operate them, a requirement for the transfer of the American-made warplanes.
Discussions about sending F-16s to Ukraine are gaining steam at the Pentagon, with one U.S. Defense Department official telling POLITICO last week: “I don’t think we are opposed.”
Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, said Monday that Poland would be willing to provide its F-16s to Ukraine in coordination with NATO. Yet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly rejected any F-16-related requests emanating from Kyiv.
“The question of combat aircraft does not arise at all,” Scholz said in an interview with Tagesspiegel published on Sunday. “I can only advise against entering into a constant competition to outbid each other when it comes to weapons systems.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 31, 2023
Three men indicted in plot to kill Iranian-American journalist on U.S. soil

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The men — Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov and Khalid Mehdiyev — were charged with murder-for-hire and money laundering for their role in a Tehran-backed plot to kill Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist, on U.S. soil. One of the defendants has been detained since his arrest last July, another is in custody of foreign partners pending extradition, and the third is in U.S. custody and will be presented today in court, Garland said.
Alinejad responded to the news in a video posted on Twitter shortly after the press conference, expressing gratitude for the law enforcement teams who thwarted the plot to kill her, and calling on the U.S. government to respond to the regime’s violent crackdowns on protesters.
“Let me make it clear: I am not scared for my life. Because I knew that killing, assassinating hanging, torturing, raping, is in the DNA of the Isalmic Republic,” Alinejad said. “And that’s why I came to the United States of America. To practice my right, my freedom of expression, to give voice to brave people of Iran who say no to [the] Islamic Republic.”
Alinejad added she is “thankful” for the work of the FBI and U.S. law enforcement, but called on the U.S. government to continue to take “strong action” against Iran. “This is the time that we have to pay attention to innocent people in Iran who don’t have any protection,” she said.
“The law enforcement action today is the latest U.S. disruption of plotting activities against this victim and other Americans,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in statement. “It follows a disturbing pattern of Iranian Government-sponsored efforts to kill, torture, and intimidate into silence activists for speaking out for the fundamental rights and freedoms of Iranians around the world. Today’s announcement by the Attorney General should serve as a warning about the long reach of the U.S. Government in defense of Americans everywhere”.
Earlier this week, the U.S. and its allies hit Iran with new sanctions targeting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, five of its board members, four senior IRGC commanders and Iran’s deputy minister of intelligence and security.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 27, 2023
U.S. to send Ukraine more advanced Abrams tanks — but no secret armor

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The most radical changes are on the inside, which has been redesigned to take advantage of new technology. The control mechanisms are digitized, most notably a new inter-vehicle information system that allows vehicles to exchange information continuously and automatically. Using the new technology, commanders can rapidly track the location of friendly vehicles, identify enemy positions and process artillery requests.
But federal policy forbids the export of Abrams with classified armor packages used by the U.S. military, which includes depleted uranium, according to a fourth person with knowledge of the policy. The U.S. strips the vehicles of this secret armor “recipe” before selling them to other countries. There are other armor packages the U.S. can provide for foreign military sales customers.
The Pentagon is planning to provide Ukraine the A2 version in this “exportable” form, according to one defense official and two other people with knowledge of the deliberations.
Questions remain over the timeline of when the Abrams tanks can be delivered to Ukraine. The tanks are assembled in one place only — a government-owned, General Dynamics-operated plant in Lima, Ohio. That facility can produce 12 tanks per month, but the line is now full of new tank orders for Taiwan and Poland — orders it would be difficult and likely controversial to put on the backburner.
The Army is providing multiple options for senior leaders to determine the way ahead, the service’s acquisition chief, Doug Bush, told reporters Wednesday.
Poland has ordered 250 A2 tanks that will be delivered starting in 2025, but in the meantime is receiving an emergency infusion of 116 M1A1 tanks recently retired by the Marine Corps. Warsaw asked for the tanks to quickly replace the 250 Soviet-era T-72 tanks it gave Ukraine last year, and the shuttering of the Marine Corps tank units made hundreds of well-maintained tanks available immediately.
Taiwan ordered 108 M1A2 tanks in 2019, and the first are expected to be delivered in 2024.
General Dynamics no longer builds the M1 from scratch, but has a number of “M1 seed vehicles” that are bare-bone tanks. When new orders come in, General Dynamics modifies these seed vehicles with new technology depending on which variant is selected.

But these upgrades are not “easy or fast,” Bush said.
Rather than sending Ukraine tanks from its own stocks, as it has done with previous weapons, the U.S. has said it is buying the Abrams from industry, meaning they won’t arrive on the battlefield for many months, or potentially years, given industrial constraints in upgrading them. In the meantime, the U.S. will train Ukrainian forces on how to maintain and operate the tanks, as well as “combined arms maneuver” tactics to help them integrate the weapons into their overall operations.
Either Abrams version would be a significant upgrade from the Soviet-era tanks Ukraine now operates, in firepower, accuracy and armor. But once they arrive, Ukrainian forces will be challenged to keep them in operation, experts said.
Those challenges are why the Biden administration pushed the delivery of German-made Leopard tanks, which are easier to maintain and train on. The first Leopards from Germany and other European countries will likely start arriving in Ukraine this spring.
Unlike other tanks that use diesel, the Abrams has a jet turbine engine that guzzles JP-8 jet fuel, which is more expensive and harder to maintain. They are also tricky to maintain, and any crew error could trigger the engine to blow.
Meanwhile, they require a massive infrastructure, including M88 recovery vehicles to repair broken parts on the battlefield, to operate.
“The M1 is a complex weapon system that is challenging to maintain, as we’ve talked about,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday. “That was true yesterday; it’s true today; it will be true in the future.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 26, 2023
Biden grants Hong Kongers in the U.S. a 2-year deportation reprieve

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The White House has also expanded the number of people who may benefit from DED by allowing any Hong Kong residents present in the U.S. today, Jan. 26, to apply for the program.
“With this action, we are demonstrating again President Biden’s strong support for the people of Hong Kong in the face of increasing repression by the PRC,” the National Security Council said in a statement.
U.S.-based pro-democracy activists who have been lobbying the White House for months to extend DED welcomed the White House decision. Hong Kongers in the U.S. “can breathe a sigh of relief,” said Samuel Chu, president of the nonprofit The Campaign for Hong Kong. The expanded eligibility criteria means that “even more lives will be preserved and protected from persecution, rigged trials, long jail sentences, and loss of freedom,” Chu said.
The Chinese government has bristled at the deportation protection provided to Hong Kong residents in the U.S.
“The U.S. provided so-called ‘safe haven’ for anti-China insurgents fleeing overseas under the pretext of democracy and human rights, further exposing its sinister intention to jeopardize the peace of Hong Kong and to use the ‘Hong Kong card’ to contain China’s development,” Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement earlier this month.
The Biden administration first issued the deportation reprieve in August 2021, due to concerns about “the significant erosion” of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong. It granted an estimated 3,860 Hong Kong citizens present in the U.S. on that date the right to live and work in the U.S. for 18 months.
But repression in the territory has worsened during that time as government authorities have launched a prolonged crackdown to silence democracy activists and muzzle media. Police enforcement of the National Security Law, which imposes severe penalties for ambiguously defined crimes including “subversion” and “collusion with foreign countries” has led to the arrests of more than 160 people since June 2020 for crimes including organizing informal public opinion polls. Lawyers who represent victims of human rights abuses are fleeing the territory in the face of threats and intimidation.
The NSC said in its statement that Beijing is using the National Security Law to “deny the people of Hong Kong their human rights and fundamental freedoms, undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy, and chip away at Hong Kong’s remaining democratic processes and institutions.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) urged the White House earlier this month to “take immediate steps” to extend the program. Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) called for a DED extension of “another 18 months at a minimum,” in a letter last week.
Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are seeking congressional support to grant Temporary Protected Status to Hong Kongers to eliminate the uncertainty of DED extensions.
Renewing DED is “the bare minimum,” said Anna Kwok, executive director of the nonprofit Hong Kong Democracy Council. It “resets a countdown clock for Hong Kongers in the U.S. until the next wave of uncertainty and anxiety inevitably hits.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 26, 2023