Gregory May arrives in Hong Kong as new US consul general for city and Macau
- Appointment confirms earlier Post report, with May’s knowledge of the Chinese government and his Mandarin skills expected to prevent further political tensions
- Before his consul appointments, he served in US consulate in Guangzhou and country’s embassy in Beijing
May was previously US consul general in Shenyang from 2016 to 2019 and the deputy chief of mission of the US embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from 2019, before returning to his country recently. He arrived in Hong Kong on Friday.
A source familiar with the US State Department’s thinking told the Post earlier this month that the country had sought to send a career diplomat with vast experience across the wider Chinese region to avoid stirring further tensions between Washington and officials in Hong Kong and Beijing.
Before his consul appointments, May served in the US consulate in Guangzhou and the embassy in Beijing. A Texas native, May was a Taiwan-based journalist from 1993 to 1996, and assistant director and research associate in Chinese studies at Washington think tank Centre for the National Interest, then called the Nixon Centre, before going into foreign service in 2000.
May’s appointment came at a challenging time for relations between Hong Kong and Washington, as the imposition of the national security law in 2020 and subsequent US sanctions on local officials chilled political ties.
The Hong Kong government’s stringent policies on Covid-19 have also been criticised by foreign businesses, including the American Chamber of Commerce.