Hong Kong’s Economic and Trade Offices (ETOs) should not enjoy their own diplomatic privileges in the United States but rather be integrated into the Chinese embassy, a US government agency has advised.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) said in an annual report submitted to the US Congress that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) should have to negotiate to have Hong Kong’s three ETOs considered an official part of its mission to the US.
The Hong Kong government has strongly opposed the USCC’s annual report and urged the commission to “stop maliciously interfering in the affairs of the Hong Kong special administrative region.”
The report was published on Tuesday (November 15), a day after US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first face-to-face meeting in Bali, Indonesia. The two leaders agreed to manage intensifying differences and resume climate change cooperation but did not make notable progress on bilateral trade, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Chinese commentators said it would not be meaningful or useful for Hong Kong to separately operate their ETOs – based in Washington, New York and San Francisco – if they were made to operate under the Chinese embassy.
The release of the USCC’s report coincided with the announcement of the 2024 election campaign of former US President Donald Trump, who ordered the shutdown of China’s consulate in Houston in July 2020. In retaliation, China told the US to close its consulate in Chengdu. Neither consulate has been reopened since.
“Hong Kong is actively working to implement ‘local’ national security rules to reinforce the National Security Law passed in Beijing’s legislature in 2020,” said the USCC, which was established in 2000 to provide recommendations to Congress for legislative and administrative action related to the Sino-US bilateral trade and economic relationship.
“Freedoms of speech, expression, assembly, association and religion in Hong Kong – once among the most progressive in the region – have all but vanished as the territory now ranks near the bottom of global freedom indices,” it said. “Hong Kong has regressed from its history as a regional hub, shifting to serving primarily as a gateway to mainland China.”
The USCC also recommended new legislation to require US entities such as Meta Platforms and Alphabet Inc with data operations in Hong Kong to submit annual reports on any requests or attempts to access such data made by the Hong Kong government or Chinese authorities.
It said the US Congress should direct the Secretary of State to include a detailed list of all websites blocked in Hong Kong due to the city’s limitations to freedom of information.
In a statement on November 12, the Association of Overseas Hong Kong Media Professionals (AOHKMP), set up by a group of former media workers in Hong Kong, called for urgent attention to the escalating use of the law to crack down on press freedom in Hong Kong.
The AOHKMP said it had witnessed judges uphold rulings that severely undermine the operations of independent media and called for an immediate halt to the trials which threaten media professionals with life jail sentences.
“The USCC report has time and again made up excuses which deviate from the facts to maliciously slander the National Security Law, laying bare its despicable political motives,” the Hong Kong government said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Hong Kong government said it was firmly committed to upholding the rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong residents as protected under the law, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). However, it said the ICCPR stated clearly that some freedoms may be subject to restrictions for the protection of national security and public safety.
It said its three US-based ETOs were tasked with explaining policy initiatives and promoting culture by telling upbeat stories about Hong Kong. It also said the offices would continue to actively liaise with stakeholders from various sectors and foster economic and trade relations between Hong Kong and the US on a mutually beneficial basis.
Currently, the Hong Kong government operates 14 ETOs with offices in London, Toronto, Sydney, Brussels, Berlin and Geneva.
Some Chinese commentators said if the Biden administration ordered to shut down the three US-based ETOs, other Western countries might consider following suit. They noted the dispute was sparked despite Xi and Biden’s three-hour-long talks on Monday, where the two leaders agreed to jointly manage differences and avoid new conflicts.
On July 23, 2020, the Trump administration said it would give China 72 hours to close its consulate in Houston. Mike Pompeo, the then US Secretary of State, said the consulate was a hub of spying and intellectual property theft. In response, China later ordered the shutdown of the US consulate in Chengdu.
In November last year, media reports said the US and Chinese governments were considering reopening the Houston and Chengdu consulates. However, the reports were denied by the White House.
Qin Gang, the Chinese Ambassador to the US, had said on many occasions that the shutdown of China’s Houston consulate had seriously harmed the rights of people in the southern US to enjoy China’s consular service.
Qin said the US should allow China to reopen its Houston consulate as soon as possible. However, when he was asked by the media whether the American consulate in Chengdu would be reopened, Qin said the US had to admit its wrongdoings before any negotiations could begin.
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