Executive Order 13936

Executive Order 13936, entitled "The President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization", is an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on July 14, 2020. On the same day Trump had signed into law Hong Kong Autonomy Act, one of the laws from which the order derives authority. The act and the executive order are the U.S. response to the imposition of a controversial national security law in Hong Kong by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China on June 30, 2020, which was described as "an unusual and extraordinary threat [...] to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States" in the preamble.

According to Trump, he said the executive order was to "hold China accountable for its aggressive actions against the people of Hong Kong", and Hong Kong would be treated the same as China. The order directs government agencies to eliminate preferential treatments given to Hong Kong as compared to mainland China.

The Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 (HKPA), last amended by the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, is the groundwork for U.S. policies that maintain relations with Hong Kong as separate from mainland China, to the extent consistent with the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, after the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong. While existing U.S. laws and certain international agreements continue to apply to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after July 1997, section 202 of the act allows the U.S. president to issue an executive order to suspend such treatments if he determines that Hong Kong "is not sufficiently autonomous to justify treatment" different from that accorded China under U.S. laws.

In May 2020, after the Chinese National People's Congress decision on Hong Kong national security legislation was adopted, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reported to the U.S. Congress that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous. Following the enactment of the Hong Kong national security law by Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in June 2020, the U.S. Congress promptly and unanimously passed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act.

The measures introduced in the executive order include:

The United States imposed six rounds of sanctions under this Executive Order, four of which targeted Hong Kong officials.

In August 2020, Chief Executive Carrie Lam and ten other Hong Kong government officials were sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury by President Trump for "undermining Hong Kong's autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly". The sanction is based on the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and Lam would be listed in the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.

On November 9, 2020, four more individuals who were responsible for National Security were sanctioned: