Listed as the most serious level of human trafficking by the US State Department, the Hong Kong government denounces the smear campaign

The U.S. State Department released the "2026 Trafficking in Persons Report" on the 8th, and Hong Kong was downgraded to "Level 3" this year, triggering a strong backlash from the Hong Kong government.

According to the State Council's evaluation guidelines, countries that have not fully achieved the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking and have not made significant efforts are classified as "Level 3."

The reason stated in the report is that the number of human trafficking suspects prosecuted by the Hong Kong government is lower than in the past, and only two were convicted. The Hong Kong authorities claim to have complete laws and regulations to deal with human trafficking, but have made no effort to formulate comprehensive laws and regulations to criminalize all types of human trafficking. Measures and services related to victims are also incomplete.

In response, the Hong Kong government issued a statement expressing "strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition", criticizing "completely untrue and unfounded comments on Hong Kong's efforts to combat human trafficking" and denouncing the report's ranking of Hong Kong as Level 3 as "completely baseless and showing that it is deliberately discrediting Hong Kong's good reputation."