US brushes off Chinese warning to Hong Kong consul-general
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The current exchange comes at a sensitive time for US-China relations.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - The US State Department on Oct 2 brushed off a statement from the senior Chinese diplomat in Hong Kong warning the recently appointed US consul-general there against interference in the affairs of the Chinese-ruled city.
“US diplomats represent our nation and are charged with advancing US interests globally, which is standard practice for diplomats around the world, including in Hong Kong,” a senior State Department official said in a statement in response to the remarks about Consul-General Julie Eadeh.
Mr Cui Jianchun, China’s top diplomat in Hong Kong, issued a statement on Oct 2, saying he met Ms Eadeh on Sept 30 “to lodge solemn representations on her conduct since she assumed duties”.
The statement said Mr Cui urged Ms Eadeh “to abide by fundamental norms governing international relations including non-interference in domestic affairs and make a clean break with anti-China forces”.
It said he stated the “Four Don’ts” requirements, “namely don’t meet the people who the CG shouldn’t meet with, don’t collude with anti-China forces, don’t instigate, assist, abet or fund any activities that undermine stability in Hong Kong, don’t interfere with national security cases in Hong Kong”.
Ms Eadeh, who took up the post of consul-general in August, ran afoul of the Chinese authorities in 2019 during the first administration of US President Donald Trump, when official Chinese media criticised US diplomats for contacts with student leaders of protests that were then convulsing Hong Kong.
Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao published a photograph of a US diplomat, whom it identified as Ms Eadeh, then with the consulate’s political section, talking with student leaders in the lobby of a luxury hotel.
The State Department at the time criticised the Chinese authorities for leaking photos of a diplomat and their children’s names, calling it the actions of a “thuggish regime” that had gone from “irresponsible to dangerous”.
The current exchange comes at a sensitive time for US-China relations, with Mr Trump seeking to conclude a major trade deal with Washington’s biggest economic and geopolitical rival and due to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping towards the end of October.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. REUTERS
