Pro-establishment lawmaker Regina Ip said she planned to offer her own view of the ongoing protest movement as a counterpoint to unfair international news coverage. Photo: Felix Wong
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https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3064815/bipartisan-delegation-offer-competing-visions-hong-kong Politics
Bipartisan delegation to offer competing visions of Hong Kong at forum with US officials in San Francisco this week
- World Affairs Council event the first such trip since US President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act into law
- Exco member Horace Cheung says he wants to offer a ‘true picture’ of city’s human rights situation amid protests
A bipartisan delegation of pro-establishment and pro-democracy lawmakers is scheduled to meet with US officials in San Francisco this week, the first such meeting since the passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
A bipartisan group of executive councillors and opposition lawmakers will meet with US officials in California this week, the first such delegation since the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act was signed into law in November amid accusations of meddling by Beijing.
Four members of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s Executive Council are expected to defend the city’s handling of the months-long anti-government protests, while three pan-democrats will push for more details on the mechanisms of the new legislation, which raises the spectre of sanctions for officials deemed responsible for human rights violations.
Exco convenor Bernard Chan and lawmakers Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan and Martin Liao Cheung-kong will make the trip alongside opposition lawmakers Jeremy Tam Man-ho, Kenneth Leung and Charles Mok.
The group will present their competing visions of Hong Kong to senior members of the US’ executive and legislative branches at a Thursday to Sunday World Affairs Council forum in San Francisco, according to the US Consulate General’s spokesman. The State Department is providing financial support for the trip.
The objective is to “deepen the mutual understanding and exchange that has long been a hallmark of US-Hong Kong ties”, the spokesman said on Tuesday, adding a list of participants from the US side was pending.
Tam told the Post that the consulate’s invitation specified the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act would be on the agenda.
The act, drafted during a period of unprecedented unrest in Hong Kong marked by violent clashes between anti-government protesters and police, was signed by US President Donald Trump despite multiple warnings from China.
“I want to know more about the mechanism and the procedure for initiating sanctions on Hong Kong,” Tam said. “Regarding the protests, I will talk about the loophole of the Independent Police Complaints Council and want to [discuss] how the US handled similar cases.”
Pro-democracy lawmakers have long argued that the IPCC lacks the power or capacity to effectively discipline police.
Cheung, meanwhile, a vice-chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said he planned to give US officials at a “true picture” of Hong Kong at the event.
“We will tell US officials and politicians that freedom and the rule of law in Hong Kong are not affected by the protests over the extradition bill,” Cheung said.
Opposition lawmaker Jeremy Tam told the Post he will push for more details of how sanctions might be initiated under the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Photo: Sam Tsang
He said the group was tentatively scheduled to meet Jonathan Fritz, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs responsible for China, Mongolia, and Taiwan coordination, during the tour, along with officials from the US Department of Commerce and staff from the House of Representatives.
Asked if he was worried the US government would impose sanctions on Hong Kong in the near future, Cheung said: “We can’t worry too much as it’s something beyond our control.”
New People’s Party chairwoman Regina Ip said she planned to offer her own views on the protests and the city’s human rights status, a counterpoint to foreign media reports she believes have misrepresented the situation in Hong Kong.
She said this week’s dialogue was part of the preparation work for a report on the implementation of the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act due to be handed over to Congress by the end of March.
Lawmaker Regina Ip plans to offer her own view of the Hong Kong protest situation, a corrective, she believes, to unfairly skewed international media coverage. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Ip also took part in last year’s US-Hong Kong Legislative Exchange, which was convened by the Mansfield Foundation in August in Montana. She and lawmaker Felix Chung Kwok-pan represented the pro-establishment camp while four pan-democrats also attended the event.
Separately, the top Chinese envoy in Hong Kong on Tuesdayexpressed “strong disapproval” and “firm opposition” to comments made by two US Senate Foreign Relations Committee members over the recent arrest of Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and two former pro-democracy lawmakers.
In a statement posted on its official website, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry commissioner’s office in Hong Kong accused the “relevant senators” of glorifying “Jimmy Lai and his ilk”, adding that the senators’ calls for implementing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act to levy sanctions equated to “blatant interference in Hong Kong affairs and China’s domestic affairs”.
While the commissioner’s office statement did not name the senators, but it followed a Monday statement by US Senators Jim Risch and Bob Menendez expressing concern over the arrests of Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Yeung Sum.