US President Donald Trump on Thursday deemed the detention of media mogul Jimmy Lai by Hong Kong police as "terrible" development and said he hates to see what's happening in the Asian financial hub.
Trump said that the United States has withdrawn all the incentives given to Hong Kong which will eventually help Washington in making a "lot more money".
"It is terrible. We gave tremendous incentives to Hong Kong because of the freedom we want freedom. We have now withdrawn all of those incentives and it will be impossible for Hong Kong to compete with respect to that," he told reporters.
"The United States will end up making a lot more money because we lost a lot of businesses to Hong Kong. We made it very convenient for people to go there. The US will be a big beneficiary," he added.
Lai was arrested along with nine others, including his two sons, in a raid on the newspaper's office and homes on Monday under new Hong Kong security law, which is being opposed by countries around the world including the US. He was later released the next day.
In opposition of China imposing draconian Hong Kong security law, the US in June announced it is revoking the special treatment extended by law to the city.
The State Department said it is ending controlled defense exports to Hong Kong and will take steps to impose the same restrictions on the transfer of US defense and dual-use technologies, which have both civil and military applications, to the special administrative region as it puts on mainland China.
The Commerce Department separately said that regulations affording preferential treatment to Hong Kong, including the availability of export license exceptions, have been suspended.
( With inputs from ANI )