The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control overnight removed nine Hong Kong and mainland officials from its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list after President Trump allowed a 2020 Hong Kong national-emergency declaration to expire. The change affects figures such as Secretary for Justice Paul Lam, former police chief Raymond Siu and ex-Liaison Office deputy director Qiu Hong. Thirty-nine individuals remain sanctioned under the separate Hong Kong Autonomy Act and other statutes. Although Executive Order 13936—which withdrew Hong Kong’s special trade status—stays in force, Chinese and Hong Kong authorities welcomed the partial rollback as a “positive shift” and urged Washington to fully normalise economic ties. US officials characterised the move as an administrative streamlining that eliminates overlapping penalties. For mobility practitioners, the update slightly eases legal due-diligence when relocating staff who may interact with Hong Kong’s justice or policing bureaus, but firms must still screen counterparts against the remaining sanctions list and export-control rules. Financial-services providers handling payroll, tax or pension transfers for expatriates should re-run sanctions checks to avoid false positives triggered by the delisted names. Diplomats and chambers of commerce see the step as creating a marginally more predictable climate ahead of potential high-level visits later this year, but caution that core geopolitical frictions remain. Immigration lawyers note that the shift does not reinstate Hong Kong’s differential US visa treatment, so specialised visa waivers and treaty trader categories remain unavailable.
