As China passed the the controversial security law that it plans to impose on Hong Kong, President of United States Donald Trump said on Friday that he would strip several of Hong Kong’s special privileges with America and bar some Chinese students from US universities in anger over Beijing’s bid to exert control in the financial hub.

The US president attacked China over its treatment of the former British colony, saying it was “diminishing the city’s longstanding and proud status,” in a White House appearance.

“This is a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, the people of China and indeed the people of the world,” Trump said.

“I am directing my administration to begin the process of eliminating policy that gives Hong Kong different and special treatment,” Trump said.

“This will affect the full range of agreements, from our extradition treaty to our export controls on dual-use technologies and more, with few exceptions,” he added.

The United States and Britain also raised alarm and called for a meeting at the UN Security Council over a controversial new security law for Hong Kong, angering Beijing which said the issue had no place at the world body.

On Wednesday, Beijing had refused to allow a formal Security Council meeting called by Washington on the same subject to proceed.

Trump also mentioned that he was terminating the US relationship with the World Health Organization, which he has accused of pro-China bias in its management of the coronavirus crisis.

President Trump did not get into specific details and notably avoided personal criticism of President Xi Jinping, with whom he has boasted of having a friendship even as the two powers feud over a rising range of issues.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday informed Congress that the Trump administration would no longer consider Hong Kong to be separate under US law, but it was up to Trump to spell out the consequences.

China this week pressed ahead on a law that would ban subversion and other perceived offenses against its rule in Hong Kong, which was rocked by months of massive pro-democracy protests last year.

Trump administration issued an order to ban graduate students from US universities who are connected to China’s military. This move could have long-reaching consequences.

“For years, the government of China has conducted elicit espionage to steal our industrial secrets, of which there are many,” Trump said.

The Republican party have been clamoring to throw out Chinese students enrolled in sensitive fields. The FBI in February said it was investigating 1,000 cases of Chinese economic espionage and technological theft.

But any move to deter students is unwelcome for US universities, which rely increasingly on tuition from foreigners and have already been hit hard by the COVID-19 shutdown.

China has been the top source of foreign students to the United States for the past decade with nearly 370,000 Chinese at US universities, although Trump’s order will not directly affect undergraduates.

Trump has been eager to fan outrage about China to deflect attention from his own handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 people in the United States, the highest number of deaths of any country, according to the critics.

Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, called Trump’s announcement “just pathetic.”

Eliot Engel, a Democrat who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted that Trump treaded lightly on Hong Kong during last year’s protests as he sought a trade deal with Xi.

“Now, the president wants to shift the blame for his failures onto China, so he’s doing the right thing for the wrong reason,” Engel said.

Trump’s order could also trigger retaliation. China in March expelled US journalists after the Trump administration tightened visa rules for staff at Chinese state media.

The United States and Britain earlier in the day urged China to reconsider the Hong Kong law during talks at the UN Security Council, where China wields a veto — making any formal session, let alone action against Beijing, impossible.

The Western allies raised Hong Kong in an informal, closed-door videoconference where China cannot block the agenda.

They said China was violating an international commitment as the 1984 handover agreement with Britain, in which Beijing promised to maintain the financial hub’s separate system until at least 2047, was registered with the United Nations.

“The United States is resolute, and calls upon all UN members states to join us in demanding that the PRC immediately reverse course and honor its international legal commitments to this institution and to the Hong Kong people,” said US Ambassador Kelly Craft, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

China demanded that the United States and Britain “immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs,” saying the law did not fall under the Security Council’s mandate.

“Any attempt to use Hong Kong to interfere in China’s internal matters is doomed to fail,” warned a statement from China’s UN mission.

“There was no consensus, no formal discussion in the Security Council, and the US and the UK’s move came to nothing,” it said.

The US-China relations have hit a rough patch on the issues of trade, the origins of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Beijing’s new security crackdown in Hong Kong, Uighur crackdown and the communist nation’s aggressive military moves in the disputed South China Sea.

China on Friday last introduced the draft of a controversial national security law in its Parliament to tighten Beijing’s control over the former British colony Hong Kong, in what could be the biggest blow to the territory’s autonomy and personal freedoms since 1997 when it came under Chinese rule.

Hong Kong, an economic powerhouse, is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. It has observed a “one country, two systems” policy since Britain returned sovereignty to China on July 1, 1997, which has allowed it certain freedoms the rest of China does not have.