Beijing may look beyond Hong Kong to hit back at US if city’s trade offices closed: experts

Beijing may look beyond Hong Kong to formulate proportional countermeasures should the US pass legislation aimed at closing the city’s trade offices in the country, observers and experts have said.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday warned of “resolute and strong countermeasures” after the Republican-led US House of Representatives voted to pass bills that would allow the closure of the three Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (ETOs) in the country and significantly curb Sino-American academic exchanges.

If passed, the bipartisan Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act will require the US secretary of state to review the city’s trade missions in New York, San Francisco and Washington and strip them of privileges if they are found to operate without a “high degree of autonomy” from the People’s Republic of China.

Analysts generally agreed Beijing was unlikely to shut the United States consulate in Hong Kong given its status was so much greater that what the trade offices enjoyed.

The present situation was also different from when Beijing ordered the closure of the US consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu, in a tit-for-tat response to Washington shutting the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, in 2020, they said.