US should temporarily lift sanctions against Hong Kong’s John Lee for Apec: former envoy and summit ex-ambassador Kurt Tong
- Tong, who was top US diplomat in city from 2016 to 2019, says local business environment has become more difficult but it is not as altered as political landscape
- He cites ‘historical precedent and this obligation to do a good job as host’ for Washington to allow city leader to attend coming high-level trade talk in San Francisco
The United States should at least temporarily waive sanctions against Hong Kong’s leader for him to attend the Apec summit in San Francisco as there is no benefit to excluding him, a former US envoy to the city and ex-ambassador for the high-level forum has said.
Kurt Tong, the top US diplomat in Hong Kong between 2016 and 2019 and now a partner at Washington-based business advisory firm The Asia Group, also said the city’s business environment had become more difficult over the past few years amid political changes, urging reassurance that the “status quo” would be maintained.
“I have a strong sense that the host economy of Apec has a big responsibility to organise it in a way that makes Apec successful,” Tong, who was the US ambassador for Apec in 2011 when the country hosted the summit in Hawaii, told the Post in an interview last week when he was in town.
“From that perspective, and given the historical precedent and this obligation to do a good job as host, I would expect that some way will be found to make sure that Hong Kong is represented with the full respect that it deserves as a member of Apec.”
The city’s No 1 official had consistently joined the Apec leaders’ meeting, he said, adding there was no reason “to mess with it”. “My understanding is that there should be a way to legally lift the sanctions, at least temporarily or partially.”