US lawmakers ask Biden to explain Apec invitation to Hong Kong’s John Lee

Republicans Mike Gallagher and Marco Rubio suggest that State Department pledge not to invite Lee may have been a ‘lie’
Joint letter goes on to say that Hong Kong financial secretary should also be blocked from the multilateral leaders summit

US-China relations

Robert Delaney

Published: 9:59am, 7 Nov 2023

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Two US lawmakers are demanding answers from President Joe Biden’s administration about the Hong Kong government’s claim that its chief executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, was invited to this month’s Apec summit in San Francisco.

Republicans Mike Gallagher, who represents Wisconsin and chairs the US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken whether he would publicly deny that Lee received such an invitation.

In a joint letter to Blinken, they noted that “despite the State Department’s assurance” that Lee had not been invited, the Hong Kong government said on November 1 that its chief executive had “personally received” an invitation from the United States but was unable to attend for “scheduling reasons”.

“If true, this would mean that the State Department either deliberately lied to or misled Congress in July or later caved to the PRC demand, or both,” said the two lawmakers, who are among Congress’s most vocal critics of China’s government.

In June, Blinken’s department walked back a statement indicating that Lee would be invited to the Apec summit. That move followed then-deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman’s written response to members of the Foreign Relations Committee that the US would waive its entry restrictions on Lee.

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Hong Kong leader John Lee expected to be banned from next Apec summit by the US

The city’s former secretary of security has been under US sanctions since 2020 for his role in implementing what Washington has described as a “draconian” national security law imposed by Beijing. Lee was among 11 Hong Kong and mainland Chinese government officials to be sanctioned by the US over the law.

The Hong Kong government said last week that “according to convention” it had “received the invitation from the host economy to attend” and “had already replied that, due to scheduling issues”, Lee would not be attending. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po will instead lead the Hong Kong delegation.

Gallagher and Rubio also questioned the logic of having any Hong Kong representation separate from Beijing’s delegation at the summit, considering that the State Department has retained the Donald Trump administration’s determination that the city is no longer autonomous enough to warrant a separate, preferential trading status.

Doubts about Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous status, guaranteed under agreements between Britain and China that ceded sovereignty over the city to Beijing in 1997, have only increased under the Biden administration.

In a report issued earlier this year, the State Department cited the Chinese government’s recent interpretation of the national security law as one of many violations of the city’s status.

The annual report required by Congress derided a decision last year by China’s top legislative body that Hong Kong’s courts would need the approval of the chief executive or a committee established to safeguard national security to allow the participation of foreign lawyers.

“Does continued recognition of [Hong Kong] as an Apec member economy distinct from the PRC contradict annual certifications made by the secretary of state … that Hong Kong … does not hold the same level of autonomy it enjoyed prior to 1997?” the Gallagher-Rubio letter said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

“Will you rescind the invitation to Secretary Chan and ensure that no officials from [Hong Kong] attend the summit, since you have not made the certification … as to whether Hong Kong … has the same level of autonomy it enjoyed prior to 1997?”

The lawmakers also asked for copies of “the formal invitation, or any other written communication regarding Apec, extended to Chief Executive Lee and the entire Hong Kong … delegation”.