HONG KONG – Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong slammed US tariffs on China as “hegemonic” and attacked American “hillbillies” on April 15, as the world’s two largest economies face off in a trade war that has battered global markets.

Mr Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office, said in a speech that the Chinese finance hub has never levied taxes on imports, and that the United States had enjoyed a US$272 billion (S$358 billion) trade surplus in the city over the past decade.

US President Donald Trump has increased the levies imposed on China to 145 per cent, while Beijing has set a retaliatory 125 per cent toll on American imports, a move not followed by Hong Kong.

Imposing tariffs on the city is “hegemonic and shameless in the extreme”, and shows that the US does not want Hong Kong to thrive, Mr Xia said.

The US, he said, “is the greatest culprit in undermining Hong Kong’s human rights, freedom, rule of law, prosperity and stability”.

“It is not after our ‘tariffs’. It wants to take our ‘lives’,” he said.

Mr Xia said the US sanctions and tariffs would not shake the determination of Beijing and Hong Kong governments, and that “victory must belong to the great Chinese people”.

“Let those American ‘hillbillies’ wail before the 5,000-year-old civilisation of the Chinese nation!” he said, adding that anyone seeking to bring China into poverty was an “enemy”.

The comments were part of a pre-recorded speech at a Hong Kong event to mark the 10th iteration of China’s annual national security education day.

Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong after the city saw huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.

In 2024, the city passed another homegrown security law, which officials say is needed to restore order.

The US imposed a fresh round of sanctions in April on Hong Kong’s outgoing police chief, justice secretary and other officials over human rights concerns.

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