A live stream of the conference is available to watch on the White House’s YouTube channel.
Trump’s announcement will focus on China, as the president faces an impending deadline to sign Congress’ Hong Kong sanctions bill, Bloomberg’s Saleha Mohsin wrote on Twitter.
If signed by Trump, the legislation would impose stiff penalties on China for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms. The legislation had passed both the House and the Senate in early July.
The legislation would provide mandatory sanctions on Chinese officials and entities that had announced a new “national security law” on Hong Kong, which prohibits the offenses of secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion.
Anyone convicted under the Chinese legislation could face between three years and life in prison, confirming fears that Hong Kongers could be subject to harsh penalties if accused of the outlined, broadly defined crimes by the Chinese Communist Party.
The proposed U.S. legislation would back pro-democracy protesters and place sanctions on Chinese individuals and companies accused of undermining human rights in Hong Kong. This includes visa restrictions on “current and former” Chinese Communist Party officials, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
Trump’s planned announcement Tuesday comes amid increasing tensions between the U.S. and China.
Beijing officials announced sanctions Monday against GOP Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who are both known to be critical of China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying did not elaborate on what the sanctions would entail, but said that the decision was in response to the U.S. sanctioning Chinese Communist Party officials over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
“The president is not in a good mood about China,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Monday in a Fox News interview.
Speaking aboard Air Force One Friday, Trump told reporters that the U.S.’s relationship with China has been “severely damaged” by Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving little hope for progress on a second phase of the U.S.-China trade deal.
“Honestly, I have many other things in mind,” Trump said.
An advisory published over the weekend by the U.S. State Department warned American citizens to exercise “increased caution” over concerns of “arbitrary enforcement of local laws for purposes other than maintaining law and order.”
The department said enforcement could include arrests, detentions and “exit bans” to stop Americans from leaving China.
