America Needs More Than Creativity on Hong Kong – It Needs Action |
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America Needs More Than Creativity on Hong Kong – It Needs Action
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America Needs More Than Creativity on Hong Kong – It Needs Action
Members of Congress have both the authority and responsibility to act by passing the bipartisan Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act.
Hong Kong has experienced a dramatic transformation from one of Asia’s most open societies to a city where free expression is criminalized, newsrooms are silenced, and those who dare to speak out are thrown in prison. The dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms, in violation of international agreements, has been brutal and systematic.
Against this backdrop, the recent article in The Diplomat, “America Needs to Get Creative on Hong Kong,” misidentifies the problem. The United States does not face a deficit of imagination. It faces a test of whether it will act.
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Hong Kong has experienced a dramatic transformation from one of Asia’s most open societies to a city where free expression is criminalized, newsrooms are silenced, and those who dare to speak out are thrown in prison. The dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms, in violation of international agreements, has been brutal and systematic.
Against this backdrop, the recent article in The Diplomat, “America Needs to Get Creative on Hong Kong,” misidentifies the problem. The United States does not face a deficit of imagination. It faces a test of whether it will act.
The piece, whether intentionally or not, advances a case for empowering the Chinese government and retreating from the very American ideals of freedom, accountability, and democratic solidarity that United States policy should be defending. Instead, it is long past time for the U.S. to formally review whether Hong Kong’s Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs) should continue to enjoy unique diplomatic privileges, especially while the Hong Kong government escalates its repression.
The harsh sentencing of British citizen and publisher Jimmy Lai this month, along with six former Apple Daily executives, comes after President Donald Trump and a bipartisan array of U.S. senators had called for his release. This sentence is part of a systematic crackdown that has dismantled Hong Kong’s fundamental freedoms and eroded the rule of law, resulting in the imprisonment of nearly 2,000 people – many of whom remain detained for nothing more than peacefully exercising their basic human rights.
Chinese and Hong Kong officials are carefully watching the responses of the United States and international community.
Since the crackdown began in 2020, Hong Kong’s economic performance has stagnated, and foreign firms have exited amid a deteriorating legal and operating environment. In response, the Hong Kong government, including its HKETOs overseas, has launched an aggressive public relations campaign to restore investor confidence and assure foreign businesses that it is “business as usual.” Their goal is to whitewash repression. Sadly, too many U.S. entities are participating in their campaign by urging the United States to remain passive and minimizing the abuses occurring against the people of Hong Kong.
In contrast, members of Congress have both the authority and responsibility to act. Under U.S. law, Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, yet the Hong Kong government still enjoys a slew of separate diplomatic privileges, exemptions, and immunities through a unique arrangement of outposts in our country. No other adversarial government has parallel representation in our country, so why do we allow China to have these privileges? It is long past time for the U.S. government to act.
The U.S. Congress should start by passing the bipartisan Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act (S. 3655/H.R. 2661).
First, the HKETOs in Washington, D.C., New York, and San Francisco are engaging in activities that strengthen the Chinese government’s influence in the United States. They promote Beijing’s narratives and propaganda, counter-lobby against human rights legislation, and court federal, state, and local officials as well as business leaders and others. Don’t be fooled; the HKETOs are not neutral trade bureaucracies. They have a benign-sounding label that obscures their political function, allowing them to gain unique access and influence with U.S. corporations and in our states and cities.
Second, in the U.K. and Germany, individuals connected to the Hong Kong government through HKETOs and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) have been arrested on charges of espionage. We believe this may be occurring in the United States too.
Third, the Hong Kong government has taken brazen and unprecedented steps of issuing cash bounties on Hong Kong advocates in the U.S., including an American citizen. And just this month, the Hong Kong government convicted the father of U.S.-based human rights activist Anna Kwok in an unprecedented act of transnational repression, only because she exercised her free speech rights on American soil. Foreign officials operating in our country should not be allowed to take such actions without consequences or, at minimum, losing their privileges, exemptions, and immunities. Yet, the U.S. has done nothing to protect its own people, which invites further repression and overreach.
While scholarships and visa extensions are important, they will not “move the needle.” A strategy focused solely on “less-sensitive” cooperation areas ignores a hard truth: Beijing’s insecurity is not driven by Fulbright grants. It is driven by the existence of free thought and political dissent.
A recurring argument against firmer action is fear of Chinese government retaliation. Cowering because of potential threats of retaliation is not a strategy. Instead, this self-deterrence signals that threats work and invites Beijing to go even farther. If U.S. policy is perpetually shaped by fear of reciprocal measures, then China effectively holds veto power over U.S. policy. That is not strategic prudence. It is strategic paralysis, and it undermines our security, our interests, and our values.
Moreover, Beijing both needs and actively seeks to keep U.S. and other international businesses in Hong Kong. It has mounted a sustained, coordinated campaign to reassure foreign firms and preserve the city’s status as a global financial hub. Forcing those companies out would inflict far greater damage on China and Hong Kong than on the United States. Such retaliation would amount to an act of economic self-sabotage, diminishing the very advantages Beijing is striving to protect.
The United States does not have to choose between accountability and support. Effective policy requires both. Jimmy Lai’s sentence should prompt action by the U.S. government. But creativity should not mean retreating from accountability. It should mean deploying the full range of tools available – confidently, consistently, and without being perpetually cowed by the prospect of retaliation. By doing so the United States will create its own leverage to advance our interests and our values.
Hong Kong’s freedoms were promised in international agreements. Defending them requires more than symbolic concern. It requires action.
Jonathan Stivers is the U.S. director for the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation.
Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office
U.S. Hong Kong policy
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