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Call for US to lift sanctions on Hong Kong leader John Lee ahead of Apec summit
- Chinese expert says ‘concrete actions’ are needed to improve ties between Beijing and Washington
- Lee was one of 11 officials sanctioned in 2020 for their roles in enforcing the city’s national security law
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A mainland Chinese expert on Hong Kong affairs has called on Washington to lift sanctions on the city’s leader ahead of the Apec summit in November, saying it would be a concrete step to improve US-China ties.
Zhang Jian, head of the Hong Kong and Macau research office at the Shanghai Institutes of International Studies, made the remarks on Tuesday.
It was a day after Foreign Minister Qin Gang met United States ambassador Nicholas Burns in Beijing – Qin’s first meeting with an American official since the US shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon in February.
Qin told Burns that the top priority for the two powers was to prevent a “downward spiral” in relations and avoid further incidents. Burns said in a tweet afterwards that they had discussed challenges in the relationship and the need to stabilise ties and expand high-level communication.
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Zhang noted there had been more interaction between Chinese and US diplomats recently, and said the US ambassador’s remarks suggested the two sides could be making progress on a planned China visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The trip was postponed after the Chinese balloon flew over the US.
He said the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ forum in San Francisco – which Chinese President Xi Jinping and Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu are supposed to attend – was likely to be part of the agenda for Blinken’s trip.
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“Besides all the meetings, China is waiting for the US to act. What’s the point of all the talks if the US does not follow up with concrete actions? They have to do something to improve the Sino-US relationship,” Zhang said after giving a talk on Washington’s Hong Kong policy at the University of Hong Kong on Tuesday.
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