Hong Kong urges US to let leader John Lee attend Apec summit after report on plan to bar him
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Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee was sanctioned by the US for his role in a crackdown on anti-government protesters in the city.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON – Hong Kong called on Washington to let its leader John Lee attend a major economic summit in the United States in autumn, after a report said the Biden administration plans to bar the sanctioned official.
“The US is obliged to fulfil its basic responsibilities as a host to follow the rules and usual practices” of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) bloc, the city said in a statement on Friday, noting that this would entail inviting the chief executive of Hong Kong.
“The Apec meeting does not belong to a particular country,” it added.
China also criticised the potential ban on Mr Lee. “We ask the US to correct the wrong move immediately,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is also expected to attend the Apec summit. That could change if the US bars the man his government installed to lead Hong Kong, eliminating a key opportunity for Mr Xi to meet US President Joe Biden for the first time since last November in Bali.
The Washington Post earlier reported that Mr Lee, who is under US sanctions for his role in Hong Kong’s crackdown on civil liberties, would be blocked from attending the event in San Francisco in November.
The report cited three unidentified US officials familiar with the matter, without providing more details. The US consulate in Hong Kong did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some individuals who work in Mr Lee’s office were caught unaware by the news of the ban, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity in order to speak freely.
Blacklisting Mr Lee for the event would exacerbate tensions between Washington and Beijing, who are already sparring over everything from trade to human rights.
Hong Kong is separately squaring off against Western tech companies on Friday in a landmark court case over a controversial protest song from Hong Kong’s Internet.
The US has imposed a raft of sanctions on China in recent years, and some are becoming a barrier to the high-level dialogue the Biden administration has been pushing to restore.
Earlier in 2023, China rebuffed a request by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin
Still, top US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry, have all visited Beijing recently, a sign that the two nations have made some progress rebuilding relations.
The US initially indicated it was open to Mr Lee attending the Apec summit. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a critic of China, later said in a letter to Mr Blinken that he was “dismayed to learn the Biden administration plans to waive the sanctions”.
“The fact that the US is not willing to break its own protocol tells you it will firmly maintain its tough policy on China,” said City University of Hong Kong’s Assistant Professor Liu Dongshu, who specialises in Chinese politics.
“They don’t want their tough policy to become a crisis or a war, but at least currently, they won’t give it up.”
Security law
The US State Department earlier in July condemned Hong Kong after it put HK$1 million (S$170,950) bounties on eight overseas democracy activists wanted under a Beijing-imposed national security law. At least one of those people joined campaigners in lobbying the US to ban Mr Lee from attending the Apec meeting.
However, in a surprising turn, Hong Kong’s High Court on Friday “declined to grant” a government injunction to ban the protest song Glory To Hong Kong, saying it could undermine freedom of expression and cause potential “chilling effects”.
The injunction application came after Glory To Hong Kong was played mistakenly at several international events, including rugby and ice hockey competitions.
The song was widely sung and played during the city’s massive pro-democracy protests in 2019. It was later deemed seditious after China imposed the national security law.
Any ban could force Western tech firms such as Google to reconsider their presence in the finance hub, and would directly challenge the freedoms that differentiate the former British colony from mainland China.
It would also raise the legal risks for Silicon Valley tech giants – from Alphabet to Apple and Meta Platforms – that quit the Chinese market years ago due to onerous censorship demands.
Practical problems
Mr Lee was sanctioned by the US in 2020 for “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy” shortly after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong. That legislation has since been used to jail a large portion of the city’s political opposition and pressure the most critical media outlets into shuttering.
While the prohibitions do not specify restrictions around attending events or meeting US officials and citizens, they froze any assets Mr Lee had in the US and prohibit anyone there from providing funds, goods or services to him, unless an exemption is issued.
That means any trip to the US could face logistical issues. His predecessor Carrie Lam famously said she had to be paid in cash after being slapped with US sanctions. Generally, US people or entities are banned from engaging with individuals on the list, unless an exemption is awarded.
In June, China called on the US to fulfil its “obligation” to allow Mr Lee to visit the summit in San Francisco. BLOOMBERG
