Former US envoy Kurt Tong says Beijing should ‘dial back’ its Hong Kong approach amid unrest
- Recently retired diplomat calls on Chinese government to ‘re-establish a little more distance between the rest of China and Hong Kong’
- Tong also suggests that China hawks’ growing influence in Washington has led to an exaggeration of concerns about Hong Kong among some in the US
The United States’ recently departed envoy to Hong Kong on Tuesday called on the Chinese government to temper its approach to handling the city’s affairs amid growing concerns among Hongkongers over mainland influence.
“The mainland government would be well advised to just kind of dial it back a little in terms of how it approaches Hong Kong affairs,” said Kurt Tong, who retired as US consul general to Hong Kong and Macau on July 5.
Tong’s call for restraint from the Chinese government came the same day that Beijing pushed back strongly against similar statements from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, accusing the US of being directly responsible for recent violent unrest on Hong Kong streets.
He said Beijing should give Hong Kong “the space that it stated that it would in the Sino-British Joint Declaration or in the Basic Law, and re-establish a little more distance between the rest of China and Hong Kong”.
Tong’s remarks, delivered at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, came as widespread protests about Beijing’s influence over Hong Kong affairs approach the two-month mark.