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Hong Kong economy
OpinionComment
Bernard Chan
Bernard Chan

Opinion | Why US must rethink bill to remove Hong Kong’s trade office privileges

  • As the balloon saga showed, media narratives can paint an untrue picture, helping hardline Republicans push Joe Biden to retaliate against China
  • The same mistake must not be allowed to happen with the Senate set to debate a bill that could close down Hong Kong’s trade offices in the US

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A Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco. These offices have some of the privileges and immunities of diplomatic missions granted in many countries. Photo: Handout
Bernard Chan

Despite US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s message of congratulations to the people of China as the country celebrated its national day, many in the business community fear that this rhetoric falls short of America’s real intention to stifle China’s economic progress on the world stage.

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There is increasing concern about US posturing and its potential impact on Hong Kong. The passing of a draft bill by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in July, titled the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) Certification Act, paved the way for the proposed act to be submitted to the Senate and passed into law.
If passed, it would empower the president of the United States to remove the privileges, exemptions and immunities given to our three economic trade offices in New York, Washington and San Francisco, and close them all, if it believed Beijing had eroded a high degree of Hong Kong’s autonomy.
The bill was introduced to Senate in mid-February by Marco Rubio and Jeff Merkley, mere weeks after a significant incident that caused a severe rift and an escalation of tensions between the US and China – the incursion of a high-altitude balloon in US airspace that was quickly dubbed the “Chinese spy balloon” in mainstream media.
The event elicited a knee-jerk response from the US State Department and the cancellation of Blinken’s visit to Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping.
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Days after the balloon first flew over Alaska, President Joe Biden ordered a military intervention in the form of an F-22 fighter jet, which shot down the harmless balloon six miles off the coast of South Carolina. The US intelligence agencies were tasked with analysing the balloon parts retrieved and eventually found nothing untoward.
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