US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to end preferential economic treatment for Hong Kong.
The move was in retaliation for what he called China’s "oppressive actions" against the former British colony.
Trump cited China's decision to enact a new national security law for Hong Kong.
"No special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies," he told a news conference.
"Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China," added Trump.
He also signed a bill approved by the U.S. Congress to penalise banks doing business with Chinese officials who implement the new security law.
The Chinese foreign ministry has condemned the latest US moves, urging Washington to stop interfering in China's internal affairs.
Critics of the new security law in Hong Kong fear it will crush the wide-ranging freedoms promised to the territory when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, while supporters say it will bring stability to the city.
Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to a 'temporary ceasefire' on Wednesday, Islamabad said, after an airstrike and ground fighting sent tensions between the South Asian neighbours soaring, killing more than a dozen civilians.
Aid trucks rolled into Gaza on Wednesday and Israel resumed preparations to open the main Rafah crossing after a dispute over the return of the bodies of dead hostages that had threatened to derail the fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Fresh fighting broke out on Wednesday along the volatile Pakistan-Afghanistan border, killing more than a dozen civilians and troops to shatter a fragile peace after weekend clashes that killed dozens.
Toxic gas and a locked door that barred access to a roof were responsible for most of the deaths in a devastating fire in a Bangladesh garment factory and an adjoining chemical warehouse, a fire official said on Wednesday.
Kenya's veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who was imprisoned while fighting one-party autocracy and ran five times unsuccessfully for the presidency, has died at the age of 80, sources close to him said on Wednesday.