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US to press on with ‘strategic engagement’ with Hong Kong, experts say amid policy debate
- Observers say Washington expected to keep up pressure on city despite ex-diplomat arguing Hong Kong remains distinct from mainland China
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The United States is likely to push on with pressuring Hong Kong even as it engages strategically with the politically changed city to safeguard American economic interests.
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Political observers offered their opinions after Hanscom Smith, a former US envoy to Hong Kong, caused a stir with an article that sparked questions about possible policy changes by Washington towards the city.
Smith defended the city’s unique attributes which he said set it apart from the mainland in “Hong Kong Isn’t Mainland China: Let’s Try to Keep It that Way” published on June 27.
He maintained Hong Kong’s “internet remains virtually unfettered, religious freedom persists, and the media is still comparatively open”, despite Beijing’s imposition of the 2020 national security law and the domestic version, which came into force in March.
Smith, who was consul general to Hong Kong and Macau from 2019 to 2022, is now a senior associate at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, and a senior fellow at Yale University’s Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs.
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