Opinion | 3 ways Hong Kong can help thaw China-US relations

The past few weeks have seen a flurry of high-level diplomatic activity in Hong Kong. California Governor Gavin Newsom was greeted by a packed room for a fireside chat with University of Hong Kong Vice-President Peng Gong.

This was followed by the visit of a delegation of six US mayors to the university, where they spoke to prominent sustainability experts in the city. A day later, former US consul general Kurt Tong addressed an audience at Asia Society Hong Kong, a jewel of people-to-people, cultural and artistic exchanges.

Meanwhile, a group of hawkish US lawmakers has proposed further symbolic retaliation to the national security law, calling for more sanctions targeting Hong Kong officials. As with the row over the Chinese balloon earlier this year, which came soon after US President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping’s meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit, few moves to thaw US-China relations occur these days without subsequent attempts to derail them.

China and the United States are at loggerheads over many hotly contested issues. These include the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific and South China Sea, the ideological debate over the desirability of their models of governance, and the race for technological dominance and self-sufficiency.

Yet the world needs Beijing and Washington to find a way to coexist, even if uneasily. With wars raging in the Middle East and eastern Europe, any further escalation in tensions over the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea would be detrimental to the world.

Coexistence requires communication. As one of China’s two special administrative regions – endowed with relatively open exit and entry rules for capital and labour and a resilient rule of law that continues to serve multinational corporations seeking to gain a foothold in China – Hong Kong has a role to play.