Ross: Trump considering ‘whole menu’ of options against China on Hong Kong law

President Trump is considering a “whole menu” of options in response to a proposed Chinese national security law that would compromise Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous status, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday.

“There’s a whole menu of potential things that he could do,” he said on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria.”

China’s proposed law would effectively end the “one country, two systems” arrangement that has allowed Hong Kong to maintain certain democratic freedoms.

The legislation comes at a fraught time in U.S.-China relations. Trump has blamed China for the global coronavirus pandemic and has sought to paint his presumptive Democratic opponent in the presidential race, former Vice President Joe Biden, as soft on China.

The status of the “Phase One” trade deal signed earlier in the year, which scaled back tariffs and included promises from China to buy billions of dollars worth of American goods, could be in jeopardy.

Ross on Wednesday also noted that the U.S. had also been restricting some Chinese companies from being able to access certain U.S. technologies by adding them to what’s called the “entity list.”

“We more recently put 33 more Chinese entities on our so-called entity list. That was mainly for human rights violations relating to the Uighurs, a very beleaguered part of the Chinese population,” Ross said.

But he would not predict whether China would move to cancel its Phase One purchases as a result.

“I think we shouldn’t prejudge either what the president will do or what the Chinese might do in response,” Ross said.

“This is a very delicate situation. A lot of things need to be balanced,” he added.