Editorial | Apec summit has no place for spite by US

Hong Kong has been attending summits of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum as a full member, alongside 20 countries, since 1991, before and after Britain’s handover of the city to China. This is testament to its pivotal role as an entity in trade and international finance.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu accepted Thailand’s invitation as summit host last November, attending the Apec economic leaders’ meeting. Despite a lot of negative news reporting on Hong Kong arising from the imposition of the national security law and political reform, Lee was made welcome, former top government adviser Bernard Chan said.

Sadly, there are doubts whether Lee will be welcome when the United States hosts the next Apec summit in November. It is not clear what Washington is doing with his invitation, but it seems to have fallen foul of American internal politics.

Lee was among the Chinese officials sanctioned by the US in 2020, with Washington claiming the national security law undermined the city’s autonomy and restricted the freedoms and rights of residents.

Now, after telling Congress it intended to welcome Lee, the State Department appears to have made a U-turn, saying it made no such commitment. This followed a request from a bipartisan group of four congressmen to the department to bar Lee as a sanctioned person and because the invitation recognised the city as a separate economy from China, contrary to US law.