Hong Kong might lose access to many technological products that appeal to both mass consumption and specialized usage such as internet security, should the United States impose sanctions on the city following the passage of a new national security law.

Local tech professionals are worried that once the U.S. revokes Hong Kong’s special trade status and treats it like any other mainland Chinese city, export control over dual-use technologies may kick in, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened last month.

That threat came after the National People’s Congress of China passed a resolution in late May to impose national security legislation in Hong Kong. Trump vowed at the time to remove preferential treatment that Hong Kong received under U.S. law, saying China had been “smothering” Hong Kong’s freedom and the city had been governed under “one country, one system,” rather than the “one country, two systems” principle promised by China when it was handed over the sovereignty of the city in 1997.

Dual-use technologies cater to civilian commercial interests and military purposes, and are found in both software and hardware, such as communication devices. These include items listed under the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multilateral export control regime of 42 state members focusing on conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies.

Victor Choi, chair of the Hong Kong Electronics and Technologies Association, said U.S. sanctions would have a big impact on all levels of society, from general public consumption of tech products to tech companies relying on the import of these technologies.

He said semiconductor companies, for example, usually targeted the consumer market and would not manufacture military-use products separately. But products that could survive extreme conditions had the potential to be repurposed for military use, so if sanctions were in place, civilian-use technologies would be banned from being exported to Hong Kong.

Choi said Hong Kong companies that had been buying high-tech products from the U.S. — either for their own usage or to resell to mainland China — would suffer the most. Mainland products would not be able to replace U.S. products because of the difference in quality, he said.

Francis Fong, honorary chairperson of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, expressed hope that some dual-use technologies could be exempted from U.S. sanctions, for example, those available for sale in the open market.

For example, 500-meter-long optic fiber cables came under export control according to the Wassenaar Arrangement but those used in Hong Kong’s optic fiber network stretched into kilometers, Fong noted. He was concerned, however, if the export control would affect consumer products in future.

Lento Yip, chair of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, was worried that Hongkongers might have to switch to using Huawei routers if they could not buy American imports, as a lot of core compartments were U.S-manufactured.

IT-sector lawmaker Charles Mok said the business sector wanted Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” governing principle and high level of autonomy to be maintained in order to be spared any U.S. sanctions.

Both the Hong Kong Science Park and the Hong Kong government’s Information and Technology Bureau said it was difficult to assess the situation as the U.S. had not announced concrete policies on possible sanctions. The bureau insisted that Hong Kong’s IT industry would be little affected as the prevailing practice was to source imports from not only the U.S. but also many other parts of the world.

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