#Hong Kong leader admits to credit card troubles after US sanctions

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam admitted she’s having problems using her credit cards after the Trump administration slapped sanctions on her and 10 other senior city officials after China imposed a strict security law on the city, according to a report.

“As for myself, of course it will have a little bit of inconvenience here and there, because we have to use some financial services and we don’t know whether that will relate back to an agency that has some American business — and the use of credit cards is sort of hampered,” Lam said, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing state broadcaster CGTN.

Lam and the other officials were targeted by the Trump administration for curtailing the freedoms of pro-democracy protesters and after the Chinese Communist Party implemented an expansive security law in June.

She shrugged off the effects of the sanctions.

“Despite some inconvenience in my personal affairs, that is nothing that I will take to heart at all,” Lam said. “We will continue to do what is right for the country and for Hong Kong.”

Chinese state-run banks in Hong Kong are taking tentative steps to follow the sanctions, Bloomberg reported.

At the time the sanctions were initially announced, Lam reportedly said she would “laugh it off” if the US sanctioned her.

“I do not have any assets in the United States nor do I long for moving to the United States,” Lam said then.

The latest bout of unrest in the region was sparked by a bill that Lam tried to shepherd through Hong Kong’s legislature last year that would have allowed China to extradite criminal suspects to mainland China.

China’s security law makes “subversion” or “collusion with foreign forces” punishable by life in prison, allows more governmental control over schools, social organizations and the media, and gives law enforcement agencies broad powers.