A senior Trump administration official says the White House is pushing forward with even more tough measures against Beijing, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Among them the most significant move would be the creation of informal alliance of Western nations. When Beijing uses its trading power to bully other nations, the group would act together to retaliate. For example, when China blocks certain imports, the alliance could instead purchase the goods. The group could also lay tariffs on China for compensation.
One senior official told the WSJ that China tries to beat countries into submission with economic coercion, adding that the West needs to create a system to collectively absorb the economic punishment from China’s coercive diplomacy.
The official said China’s economic retaliation toward Australia had inspired the idea, after the country pushed for an investigation into the origins of the CCP virus.
In an interview with Hong Kong’s international business channel, the city’s executive Carrie Lam admitted that she now faces inconvenience due to the sanctions imposed by the United States after she backed Beijing’s national security law.
She said: “I am using cash everyday for all the things. I have piles of cash at home because the government is paying me cash for my salary, because I do not have a bank account.”
Based on the U.S. sanctions any bank that does business with Lam could face punishment, including transactions like opening a bank account. Lam’s annual salary is about $570,000.