China state council made some comments a while ago. They decided earlier today to dig their heels into the ground against Hong Kong and the US, trying to show US that they run things in HK. Global Times’ editor-in-chief Hu Xijin posted a tweet earlier:

“Based what I know, out of respect for President Trump, the US and its people, China is considering to put the drafters of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on the no-entry list, barring them from entering Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao.”

But, they still need a partial trade deal at least, very badly. So, if they want to take some rope, in this case more control in Hong Kong, they will have to also give some rope. The state council made the following comments:

• Will step up punishment for IP infringement
• Will step up policy support for trade development
• Will lower non-tariff trade barriers
• Will further accelerate efforts to build exports control system to manage trade risks
• Will properly resolve trade frictions
• Will further widen market access for foreign capital

There are a lot of wills in these comments; more access for the foreign capital, efforts to build export control systems and punish IP theft. These issues were so questionable by China earlier, but now they are accepting the conditions. This shows that China wants a trade deal badly, but they also want Hong Kong too. Let’s see how this will end up now that Hong Kong has become another major issue between Western democracies and the Chinese government.