US will not renew order revoking Hong Kong trade status

China voices appreciation for US move on Hong Kong executive order

The United States has confirmed that it will not renew a 2020 executive order that revoked Hong Kong’s special trading status, China’s Commerce Ministry said Friday. The ministry said the U.S. made commitments on Hong Kong issues and other matters during the U.S.-China trade talks in Madrid last year, and that Washington recently confirmed the executive order would end.

“The U.S. side’s actions represent an important step in fulfilling the consensus reached during the bilateral economic and trade talks. China appreciates it,” the ministry said in a statement.

The decision removes the executive order that had revoked Hong Kong’s special trading status since 2020, when President Donald Trump declared the city no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment under U.S. law. The order was last renewed for a year in July 2025 and would have lapsed automatically without renewal. Trump issued the original order in response to Beijing’s imposition of a national security law for Hong Kong that same year.

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control said Friday that the national emergency declared in the executive order had expired and that it had delisted people who were sanctioned under the order. However, those who remain sanctioned under a separate act related to Hong Kong have been added to a different sanctions list, the office said. The effect was that Hong Kong leader John Lee and his predecessor, Carrie Lam, were removed from the first list and added to the second.

China considers the national security law necessary to restore stability after massive anti-government protests in 2019, which posed one of the biggest challenges to the Communist Party and the Hong Kong government since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Six years after the law’s introduction, many leading activists, including pro-democracy former media tycoon Jimmy Lai, have been imprisoned under it. Critics say the Western-style civil liberties that Beijing promised to maintain for 50 years after the handover have declined.

The Hong Kong government said it noted the “positive shift in the U.S. policy” toward the city. “Safeguarding Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability serves the common interests of China and the US, and also aligns with the general expectation of the international community,” it said in a statement. The government said it hopes the U.S. will respect China’s sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong and resume normal economic and trade exchanges with the city.

The decision came two months after Trump met with Xi in Beijing and could warm ties ahead of Xi’s expected visit to the U.S. later this year. Earlier this month, a pastor of a prominent underground church who was detained in China in October was released after Trump brought up his case with Xi.

The White House referred questions about the executive order lapsing to the Treasury Department. It is not immediately clear what all the implications of the decision are.