A former Hong Kong leader has slammed the US for “flexing its hegemonic muscle” with a bill that could close the city’s trade offices in the country, while calling on all public administrators to ramp up governance capabilities to manage local challenges.
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who served as chief executive from 2017 to 2022, said on Friday that the rise of protectionism and worsening US-China relations had brought uncertainty in terms of regional economic development.
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She cited the congressional bill targeting Hong Kong’s trade outposts in New York, Washington DC and San Francisco as the latest example while speaking at a seminar held by the new public policy school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Shenzhen campus.
“The US once again flexed its hegemonic muscle a few days ago when the House of Representatives [advanced proposed legislation] that could affect our three offices in the US and deprive them of their special privileges,” she said.
“These behaviours will harm others without benefiting themselves. I hope the US government and politicians realise the measures are not good for the American business community or the exchanges between the two places.”
The bipartisan Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act, which is likely to clear the US Senate, requires the United States secretary of state to review the city’s three trade missions and strip them of privileges if they are found to operate without a “high degree of autonomy” from the People’s Republic of China.