HK must handle US policy change in a pragmatic way
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) of US Congress released on Nov 14 its annual report, in which it asked the Department of Commerce to review policies on tech exports to Hong Kong.
Some members of the opposition camp urged the SAR government to do its best to meet US demands on the implementation of “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong to avoid any unfavorable change in US trade policy toward the city.
However, what is the US assessment of the implementation of “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong? The USCC annual report claims that Beijing keeps encroaching on freedom in Hong Kong, citing events such as the SAR government banning the Hong Kong National Party, refusing to grant work visa extension for Victor Mallet, vice-chairman of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, and implementing the co-location arrangement in the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link’s West Kowloon Station. It also claims Hong Kong is losing freedom of speech and judicial independence and demands the Department of Commerce review its tech export policy on Hong Kong accordingly. Can the SAR government and Hong Kong society as a whole accept the USCC’s accusation? The answer is of course no.
When US President Donald Trump visited China in November 2017, he maintained a friendly attitude toward China and the Chinese people. A month or so later, however, he labeled China and Russia as the US’s competitors in his first National Security Strategy report in addition to announcing major adjustments to US global strategy. Since then his administration has been stepping up efforts to contain China and extending its hostile posture toward China from trade to other areas of bilateral relations. It even went so far as to demand the World Trade Organization “expel” China during its annual The author is a senior research fellow of China Everbright Holdings. meeting and let Vice-President Mike Pence publicly accuse China of this and that on behalf of Trump at the 26th informal meeting of APEC member leaders held in November in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea. Against this backdrop, the newly released USCC annual report only serves to declare that the US government is now changing its Hong Kong policies and related strategic rhetoric in accordance with its strategy of allround containment of China’s development.
Against this background, we must clearly see the general trend of continued comprehensive and profound readjustment of the global economic, financial and political situation.
President Xi Jinping noted in his keynote speech at the annual meeting of business leaders on the side of the APEC annual meeting on Nov 12 that the world currently is in a period of broad development, transformation and readjustment. The business community has always been mindful of the politico-economic situation and development trend locally as well as globally. Nothing worries them more than uncertainty and instability do. The APEC business leader meeting chose “Inclusion in the age of disruption: Charting a common future” as its theme for a very good reason. Hong Kong’s business community must understand this in order to cope with future changes and to thrive accordingly.
SAR residents in general probably hope that whatever drastic changes the world is undergoing will never affect Hong Kong adversely, but they also understand there is no way Hong Kong can avoid such changes. The US government will most likely adjust its Hong Kong policy in the foreseeable future and the SAR government as well as local business community must be prepared to deal with any changes. If Washington decides to treat Hong Kong in a manner similar to how it treats the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong can and should convince the US business community to lobby against such policy shifts by the White House. Lobbying is what businesses do in their best interest all the time and there are more than 1,000 US companies doing business in Hong Kong. Any policy shift designed to hurt China by hurting Hong Kong will inevitably hurt some of those US companies as well.
Another way to offset the impact from negative US policy shifts is gradual integration of Hong Kong’s own development into the nation’s overall development strategy. President Xi Jinping, when meeting with a joint delegation of the two SARs attending a national conference celebrating 40 years of reform and opening-up in Beijing last month, expressed his hope for Hong Kong and Macao to more proactively join the country’s efforts to completely open up, integrate their own development into the nation’s overall development strategy more proactively, participate in the nation’s exercise in state governance more proactively, promote people-topeople exchanges among nations of the world more proactively, and join with mainland compatriots in realizing the Chinese Dream of achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!