“Beijing and Hong Kong officials have used Hong Kong national security laws extraterritorially to intimidate, silence, and harass 19 pro-democracy activists who were forced to flee overseas, including a U.S. citizen and four other U.S. residents,” the U.S. State Department said.

The U.S. sanctioned six senior Chinese and Hong Kong officials on Monday, citing "transnational repression" and further erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy in the Trump administration's first major move to punish China for a crackdown on the financial hub.

The Hong Kong office of China's foreign ministry condemned the sanctions, saying they again exposed the ill-intention of the US to undermine the city's prosperity and contain China's development