China Sanctions U.S. Lawmakers Over Hong Kong.
HARLOW: Well, China has imposed sanctions on nearly a dozen Americans, including six lawmakers for what China is deeming, quote, "bad behavior." This is all related to Hong Kong and the latest round of back-and-forth in terms of sanctions between the two countries.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, yes. And China, putting Hong Kong very much under its thumb now, stifling dissent there, arresting a major newspaper owner.</s>HARLOW: YEs.</s>SCIUTTO: CNN's Ivan Watson, he joins us now. Ivan, you've been covering this for a long time. Tell us the situation in Hong Kong right now, what China's doing exactly there that folks at home need to understand.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. On July 1st, the Chinese government rewrote the rules -- literally -- for Hong Kong, giving the Chinese Central Government the power to investigate, arrest and prosecute people here suspected of sedition, subversion, collusion with foreign powers. That was a big turning point. Hong Kong is supposed to be an autonomous former British colony until the year 2047, with certain democratic freedoms. I think what's surprising everyone here is how quickly the tolerance for dissent is being squelched. You've had at least two dozen people arrested under this controversial new national security law, a dozen opposition activists barred from running for elections, elections that were scheduled here for Hong Kong next month, that have now been postponed a year on the grounds of the coronavirus pandemic, which critics say is actually a pretext. And then the scene of some 200 Hong Kong police raiding the newsroom of a Hong Kong newspaper yesterday that just happens to be owned by one of the most ferocious critics of the Communist Part, a man named Jimmy Lai who has also been placed under arrest. I don't think anybody expected this curtain to come down this quickly over this city -- Jim and Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Yes, decades, decades sooner than any --</s>SCIUTTO: Yes --</s>HARLOW: -- anything was laid out. Ivan, thank you very much. Before we go --</s>SCIUTTO: Yes, I -- yes.</s>HARLOW: Sorry, I've just been reading --</s>SCIUTTO: No worries.</s>HARLOW: -- I've been reading during the show. It's a big day for you, Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: Thank you, thanks so much.</s>HARLOW: Your new book is out. Quick pitch to people out there, because I'm about halfway through and it is gripping.</s>SCIUTTO: Listen, I took a look at four years of the world under Trump, under his foreign policy, upending not only relationships with adversaries but allies.