US Consul Kurt Tong refuses to apologise for questioning Hong Kong’s autonomy from Beijing, saying ‘open conversation is good for everybody’
- Top US diplomat in Hong Kong stands by remarks that the Chinese Foreign Ministry Office called ‘distortion and defamation’
- Consul Kurt Tong says it is his job to “help stimulate open conversation … about the situation in Hong Kong’
The United States’ top diplomat in Hong Kong has refused to apologise for a speech warning against Beijing’s involvement in the city’s affairs, insisting it was his job to help “stimulate transparent conversation”.
“I think people need to step back, take a deep breath, put things into context and realise that open conversation is good for everybody,” Consul General Kurt Tong said on Monday.
“I’m not going to apologise for saying Hong Kong is a great place to do business or Hong Kong is a wonderful city,” Tong said.
“Identifying risks is not a bad thing. It is important to talk about possible future scenarios, so we can think about the best way to operate in the future context.”
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Pro-Beijing politicians condemned Tong for meddling in the city’s affairs, and Brave Chan Yung, a local delegate to the National People’s Congress, said the US diplomat owed all Chinese citizens an apology.
“It’s my job to represent the United States and explain and provide feedback and help stimulate open conversation, transparent conversation about the situation in Hong Kong, so everyone can be involved in the conversation and think about the best way forward for the city,” Tong said on the sidelines of an American Chamber of Commerce business conference.
In his February 27 speech, Tong said “certain recent events in Hong Kong have raised cautionary flags for some US observers, as they consider the sustainability of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy going forward”.
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“In all of these cases and trends, the mainland central government appears to have been intimately involved in the Hong Kong government’s decision-making,” Tong said.
Beijing’s foreign ministry office issued a statement that expressed “resolute opposition” to Tong’s speech and urged him to stop interfering in the internal affairs of Hong Kong and China.
“The ‘one country, two systems’ has been successfully implemented in Hong Kong and the [city’s] government has taken a series of measures to safeguard the constitutional order,” it said.
The foreign ministry did not comment further on Tong’s latest remarks on Monday.
Executive Council member Wong Kwok-kin, of the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions, said Tong was not in a position to launch an open debate in Hong Kong about its autonomy status.
“He is free to share his thoughts with the US Department of State, but it is very impolite and arrogant for him to meddle in our internal affairs here in Hong Kong,” he said.
In Beijing, Henry Tang Ying-yen, formerly the city’s No 2 official and now a standing committee member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said Tong should carefully consider the ramifications of imperilling US-China relations.
“There is freedom of speech in Hong Kong, and I think Tong’s remarks represented the US State Department, that’s why people passed judgement on what he said and criticised him,” Tang said.“But I hope as the US consul general, he can look at the big picture of the relationship between these two big countries, China and the US.”
Additional reporting by Tony Cheung in Beijing