UK Details Scope of Hong Kong Arms Embargo

The United Kingdom’s arms embargo against Hong Kong goes beyond crowd control equipment and will cover any item that could be used for “internal repression,” the U.K. said in a July 22 notice. The embargo, announced by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab July 20 (see 2007210042), covers military aircraft, helicopters, weapons platforms, armored vehicles and lethal weapons, such as machine guns, large-caliber weapons, bombs, torpedoes, rockets and missiles. The U.K. also said the embargo will cover “specially designed components” of those weapons as well as ammunition. The U.K. said it will revise its Hong Kong open general licenses “to bring them in line with restrictions on China.”