Executive Order 13936: The President's Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization

Before the order

The United States-Hong Kong Policy Act provided a framework for treating Hong Kong differently from mainland China under U.S. law. In May 2020, the Secretary of State certified to Congress that Hong Kong no longer warranted that treatment; this determination and China’s national-security legislation formed the administration’s stated basis for EO 13936. The order then specified which laws and policies the executive branch would change, rather than repealing the underlying statutes itself.

After the order

Agencies were told to begin appropriate action within 15 days. The order named export license exceptions and defense exports, an immigration regulation for Hong Kong passport holders, customs marking, extradition and prisoner-transfer arrangements, police training and future Fulbright exchanges. Some directions required agency rulemaking or diplomatic notice; the order’s instruction to act did not mean each measure took effect on the signing date. Treasury later issued Hong Kong-related sanctions regulations implementing its blocking provisions.

In July 2026, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the national emergency declared in EO 13936 had expired. OFAC removed people blocked solely under that emergency authority from its sanctions list. It explained that the separate 2019 and 2020 Hong Kong statutes were unaffected and that some people continued to be subject to sanctions under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act. This later change should not be read as a blanket restoration of every Hong Kong preference that the order addressed. The current effect of an individual export, immigration or customs measure must be checked against that measure’s own rule and authority.