A US bill that would close Hong Kong’s representative offices in Washington DC, New York and San Francisco – on the grounds that the city no longer has a high degree of autonomy from China – was passed by the congressional House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
In response, a Hong Kong government spokesperson said on Thursday that the bill was “malicious slander” which disregarded the One Country, Two Systems arrangement.
The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act will now go to the House Rules Committee. It passed the congressional committee with a unanimous vote of 39, amid support from overseas Hong Kong activist groups.
Senator Marco Rubio welcomed the bipartisan bill, tweeting that “Communist China has assimilated Hong Kong’s autonomy, as such, HKETOs should not enjoy separate diplomatic status in the U.S.”
‘Gross interference’
The Hong Kong government spokesperson said that the act was “factually wrong,” and amounted to “gross interference.”
“[The act] aims to achieve political objectives by smearing and attacking the work of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (ETOs) in the US on promoting mutually beneficial economic and trade relations and cultural exchanges between Hong Kong and the US, and by misleadingly luring the removal of the privileges, exemptions and immunities enjoyed by and even the closure of the ETOs.”
“The three ETOs of the HKSAR in the US will continue to promote Hong Kong’s unique advantages, tell the good stories of Hong Kong and, where necessary, refute erroneous reports and clarify misconceptions without fear or favour, so as to foster economic and trade relations and co-operation on different fronts between Hong Kong and the US on a mutually beneficial basis,” they added.
Under Article 156 of the Basic Law, 14 overseas ETOs have been set up worldwide as the official representations of the Hong Kong government – three remain open in the US.
See also: Hong Kong gov’t spent millions on failed lobbying bid to defeat US Human Rights and Democracy Act
In 2021, HKFP revealed how the Hong Kong government spent millions to lobby the US not to enact sanctions upon the city.
Corrections:
10am, 1.12.23: A previous version of this article stated that the bill would go for a full house vote - in fact, it will proceed to the House Rules Committee. We regret the error.
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