US House passes bill that could close Hong Kong’s trade offices, as city and Beijing claim ‘interference’
Hong Kong Free Press
Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have hit back at the US after its House of Representatives passed a bill that could see the closure of Hong Kong’s trade missions in New York, San Francisco, and Washington DC.
The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) Certification Act calls on the US president to “remove the extension of certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the HKETOs in the US if they determine that Hong Kong no longer enjoys a high degree of autonomy from the People’s Republic of China.”
A total of 413 legislators voted to pass the act, one of a number of bills voted on as part of “China week” in the Republican-led house, on Tuesday. Just three representatives opposed the bill.
Responding to a media enquiry about the passage of the bill in the House, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in the US said on Tuesday: “Some individuals from the US side are manipulating Hong Kong-related issues, concocting sinister laws and suppressing Hong Kong’s development for political purposes.”
The Hong Kong government also condemned the vote, saying in a statement released in the early hours of Wednesday morning that the “US House of Representatives’ fact-twisting attack on Hong Kong is politically driven, violates international law and the basic norms governing international relations, and grossly interferes in the affairs of Hong Kong.”
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, independent US government agency the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said it hoped “the Senate quickly takes up and passes this legislation.”
For a bill to become law in the US, it must pass through both the House and the Senate before it can be signed by the president.
In its statement, the Hong Kong government said the HKETO act “maliciously slanders against the just and legitimate objective of the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law (NSL) and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (SNSO).”
The bill does mentions neither the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 nor Hong Kong’s newer security legislation enacted in March, though it was introduced to the previous Congress in December 2022 following recommendations from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s annual report released that November.
In the Hong Kong chapter of the report, the commission said: “Security authorities continued their assault on Hong Kong’s freedoms.”
Calling the bill a “political manoeuvre,” the government statement said it “not only maliciously attacks the work of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (ETOs) in the US on promoting normal economic and trade relations and cultural exchanges between Hong Kong and the US, but further advocates for their closure, severely damaging the normal economic and trade relations.”
Under Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, which took effect when the city was returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997, the city has established 14 ETOs in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.
Though the HKETOs are neither embassies nor consulates with diplomatic functions, they are afforded quasi-diplomatic privileges, exemptions, and immunities similar to other international bodies such as the World Health Organization.
“The ETOs in Washington, DC, New York and San Francisco have been operating in accordance with local legislation and maintaining close liaison with interlocutors in government, business, think tanks and various sectors to enrich ties between Hong Kong and the US in different areas such as trade, investment, and arts and culture,” the government statement said.
Their “smooth operation… contributes to strengthening co-operation between Hong Kong and the US in different areas, and is mutually beneficial to both places,” the statement continued, adding that the US had seen a HS$271.5 billion trade surplus with the city and that more than 1,200 US companies had set up businesses in Hong Kong.
“If the US insists on undermining the mutually beneficial relations between Hong Kong and the US through the so-called Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act, it will likely harm the interests of the US and its companies.”
The Chinese embassy spokesperson threatened “resolute and strong countermeasures” if the US continued to advance the bill.
“We urge the US to… stop deliberately smearing the Hong Kong SAR and its overseas organizations, and stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs, so as to avoid causing greater harm to the stability and development of China-US relations,” they said.
Spying claims linked to London HKETO
The operations of HKETOs became international news in May after three people with links to the London trade mission were charged over violating the UK’s 2023 National Security Act by assisting a foreign intelligence service and engaging in foreign interference on behalf of Hong Kong.
One of those arrested in May, Bill Yuen, was an office manager at the London HKETO and a retired Hong Kong police officer, who prosecutors have alleged hired Peter Wai and Matthew Trickett to conduct surveillance operations and break into the home of a British National (Overseas) passport holder who left Hong Kong last December.
Yuen and Wai will face trial over the allegations next February. Trickett was found dead in a park days before the trio were first due in court.
The arrests sparked renewed calls in the UK for Hong Kong’s London trade office to be closed down, while Hong Kong leader John Lee defended the HKETOs as legitimate government bodies that promoted the city’s economic and trade interests overseas.
In 2021, HKFP revealed that the Washington HKETO was involved in a failed, multi-million dollar lobbying effort by the Hong Kong government to discuss topics including the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act with US politicians.
Lobbyists were paid by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, a statutory body, but instructed by the HKETO in Washington.
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