Trump signed an order along with a bipartisan legislation to impose sanctions on Chinese officials violating human rights law in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China," the US President was quoted as saying in the media.

No special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies," he told reporters on Tuesday.

According to Trump, the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which he signed and was passed unanimously in the US Congress earlier in July, will give the President 'powerful new tools to hold responsible the individuals and the entities involved in extinguishing Hong Kong's freedom'.

Unlike the mainland, citizens of Hong Kong have enjoyed freedoms in several things, which is likely to be curbed as Beijing tries to take full control. Known as the Vertical City, the region was under British control until 1997, post which it was handed over to China.

The new law gives Beijing a free hand to carry out trials of 'potential suspects' on the Chinese mainland. It also allows officials to carry out close door trials and designate those damaging public facilities- like transport- terrorists.

Experts believe the law will curb online freedom and make user data public as companies will be forced to share information if and when requested by law enforcement officials.

Several legal experts have also pointed at the ambiguous wordings in the law, that make it difficult for citizens to fully comprehend what constitutes a criminal offence and what is exempted from it.

According to the law, the trials can be a secret affair(Article 41) and can be held without a jury (Article 46).

Article 44 also states that the judges can be handpicked by Hong Kong's chief executive, who is answerable directly to the mainland.

Meanwhile, the US President's words have not been received kindly by Beijing, who has vowed retaliatory actions.

China will make necessary responses to protect its legitimate interests," said a Chinese foreign ministry statement condemning the US move.

Presently, China and the US are at loggerheads and have been in a state of stalemate in the last two years.

Both countries have imposed several sanctions in the aforementioned period.

However, the emergence of the novel coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on China as several countries, including the USA, have blamed Beijing for suppressing facts related to the disease and aiding the virus to spread.

That the US is not going to stop hounding China over Covid is evident from Trump's latest remark as he told reporters "we hold China fully responsible for concealing the virus and unleashing it upon the world".