China hawk Rubio likely to take hard line on Hong Kong but Beijing well prepared: experts

Marco Rubio, picked by US President-elect Donald Trump to be the country’s top diplomat, is expected to amplify Washington’s hawkish policies toward Hong Kong even as Beijing is better prepared to mitigate the potential impacts, analysts and officials in the city have said.

The 53-year-old Florida senator, named by Trump on Wednesday as his choice for secretary of state, was previously sanctioned by Beijing and is banned from entering the country. He is one of China’s harshest critics in the US and was behind bills to sanction Hong Kong officials and close the city’s trade offices on American soil.

With another China hawk joining the incoming administration, political observers and officials said they expected that Trump’s top picks would lead Washington to step up confrontations with Beijing in a variety of areas.

Rubio, also an outspoken politician on Hong Kong affairs, is likely to adopt a tough stance in potential talks with the Chinese government regarding jailed former media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying.

“Rubio will be a key executor of foreign policies of Trump, who sees China as a major rival in semiconductors and other technologies,” said Wilson Chan Wai-shun, co-founder and director of policy research at the Pagoda Institute think tank.

“He is likely to amplify certain policies, for example sanctions and restrictions, to cover Hong Kong and maximise the impacts [to contain China].”