China's attacks on 'foreign forces' threaten Hong Kong's global standing -top US envoy
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard
SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2022
SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2022
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
China's attacks on 'foreign forces' threaten Hong Kong's global standing -top US envoy

World+Biz

Reuters
11 June, 2021, 05:10 pm
Last modified: 11 June, 2021, 05:39 pm

Related News

  • UN rights chief says she urged China to review counter-terrorism policies
  • China's first residential REITs to be launched
  • Samoa signs China agreement amid South Pacific push
  • Keep the South China Sea free, Biden tells Navy graduates
  • China's external portfolio investment assets top 979B USD by end of 2021

China's attacks on 'foreign forces' threaten Hong Kong's global standing -top US envoy

"People ... don't know where the red lines are, and it creates an atmosphere that's not just bad for fundamental freedoms, it's bad for business"

Reuters
11 June, 2021, 05:10 pm
Last modified: 11 June, 2021, 05:39 pm
Hanscom Smith, the U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong and Macau attends a meeting in Hong Kong, China, May 17, 2021. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Hanscom Smith, the U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong and Macau attends a meeting in Hong Kong, China, May 17, 2021. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

The top US diplomat in Hong Kong said the imposition of a new national security law had created an "atmosphere of coercion" that threatens both the city's freedoms and its standing as an international business hub.

In unusually strident remarks to Reuters this week, US Consul-General Hanscom Smith called it "appalling" that Beijing's influence had "vilified" routine diplomatic activities such as meeting local activists, part of a government crackdown on foreign forces that was "casting a pall over the city".

Smith's remarks highlight deepening concerns over Hong Kong's sharply deteriorating freedoms among many officials in the administration of President Joe Biden one year after China's parliament imposed the law. Critics of the legislation say the law has crushed the city's democratic opposition, civil society and Western-style freedoms.

The foreign forces issue is at the heart of the crimes of "collusion" with foreign countries or "external elements" detailed in Article 29 of the security law, scholars say.

Article 29 outlaws a range of direct or indirect links with a "foreign country or an institution, organisation or individual" outside greater China, covering offences from the stealing of secrets and waging war to engaging in "hostile activities" and "provoking hatred". They can be punished by up to life in prison.

"People ... don't know where the red lines are, and it creates an atmosphere that's not just bad for fundamental freedoms, it's bad for business," Smith said.

"You can't have it both ways," he added. "You can't purport to be this global hub and at the same time invoke this kind of propaganda language criticising foreigners."

Smith is a career US foreign service officer who has deep experience in China and the wider region, serving in Shanghai, Beijing and Taiwan before arriving in Hong Kong in July 2019. He made his comments in an interview at the US diplomatic mission in Hong Kong on Wednesday after Reuters sought the consulate's views on the impact of the national security law.

In a response to Reuters, Hong Kong's Security Bureau said that "normal interactions and activities" were protected, and blamed external elements for interfering in the city during the protests that engulfed Hong Kong in 2019.

"There are indications in investigations and intelligence that foreign intervention was rampant with money, supplies and other forms of support," a representative said. He did not to identify specific individuals or groups.

Government adviser and former security chief Regina Ip told Reuters it was only "China haters" who had reason to worry about falling afoul of the law.

"There must be criminal intent, not just casual chat," she said.

Smith's comments come as other envoys, business people and activists have told Reuters of the chilling effect on their relationships and connections across China's most international city.

Private investigators say demand is surging among law firms, hedge funds and other businesses for security sweeps of offices and communications for surveillance tools, while diplomats describe discreet meetings with opposition figures, academics and clergy.

Fourteen Asian and Western diplomats who spoke to Reuters for this story said they were alarmed at attempts by Hong Kong prosecutors to treat links between local politicians and foreign envoys as potential national security threats.

In April, a judge cited emails from the US mission to former democratic legislator Jeremy Tam as a reason to deny him bail on a charge of conspiracy to commit subversion. Tam, one of 47 pro-democracy politicians charged, is in jail awaiting trial; his lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"It's appalling that people would take a routine interaction with a foreign government representative and attribute something sinister to it," Smith said, adding that the consulate did not want to put anyone in an "awkward situation."

In the latest ratcheting up of tensions with Western nations, Hong Kong on Friday slammed a UK government report that said Beijing was using the security law to "drastically curtail freedoms" in the city. 

Hong Kong authorities also this week lambasted the European Union for denouncing Hong Kong's recent overhaul of its political system.

'Tough Cases' Loom

Although local officials said last year the security law would only affect a "tiny minority" of people, more than 100 have been arrested under the law, which has affected education, media, civil society and religious freedoms among other areas, according to those interviewed for this story.

Some have raised concerns that the provisions would hurt the business community, a suggestion Ip dismissed.

"I think they have nothing to worry about unless they are bent on using external forces to harm Hong Kong," Ip said. "I speak to a lot of businessmen who are very bullish about the economic situation."

Retired judges familiar with cases such as Jeremy Tam's said they were shocked at the broad use of foreign connections by prosecutors. One told Reuters he did not see how that approach would be sustainable, as the government accredits diplomats, whose job is to meet people, including politicians.

Hong Kong's judiciary said it would not comment on individual cases.

Smith said Hong Kong's growing atmosphere of "fear, coercion and uncertainty" put the special administrative region's future in jeopardy.

"It's been very distressing to this relentless onslaught on Hong Kong's freedoms and back-tracking on the commitment that was made to preserve Hong Kong's autonomy," he said.

china / attack / foreign forces / Hongkong

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Finance projects export fall, remittance rise
    Finance projects export fall, remittance rise
  • Photo: TBS
    After 72-hour ultimatum, health directorate goes after illegal medical facilities 
  • Photo: Bloomberg
    Direct shipping now to Netherlands 

MOST VIEWED

  • The palms of a monkeypox case patient from Lodja, a city located within the Katako-Kombe Health Zone, are seen during a health investigation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997. Brian W.J. Mahy/CDC/Handout via REUTERS
    Disease experts call on WHO, governments for more action on monkeypox
  • The guy on the right just did a solid for the guy on the left.Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg
    Rishi Sunak’s helicopter drop makes the bank of England’s life easier
  • Chinese President Xi Jinping and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet are seen on a giant screen broadcasting news footage of their virtual meeting at a shopping complex in Beijing, China May 25, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
    UN rights chief says she urged China to review counter-terrorism policies
  • A satellite image shows troops and equipment occupy the village of Kolodyazi, north of Lyman, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine on 26 May 2022. Picture taken May 26, 2022. Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters
    Russian gains in Ukraine's east indicate a shift in momentum in the war
  • Ukrainian military medics transport a wounded soldier after treatment at a field hospital in Popasna, Ukraine, on May 8.Photographer: Chris McGrath/Getty Images/Bloomberg
    Russian wins in eastern Ukraine spark debate over course of war
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with members of the Delovaya Rossiya (Business Russia) All-Russian Public Organization at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 3 February, 2022. PHOTO: Sputnik/Aleksey Nikolskyi/Kremlin via REUTERS
    Putin says he's willing to discuss resuming Ukrainian grain shipments

Related News

  • UN rights chief says she urged China to review counter-terrorism policies
  • China's first residential REITs to be launched
  • Samoa signs China agreement amid South Pacific push
  • Keep the South China Sea free, Biden tells Navy graduates
  • China's external portfolio investment assets top 979B USD by end of 2021

Features

Women voluntarily joined the peaceful procession and protested by wearing clothing of their own choice. Photo: Trishia Nashtaran

The unhealthy obsession with what women wear

6h | Panorama
Illustration: Freepik

Bangladesh is on the verge of destigmatising menstruation

10h | Features
Photo: Collected

The death of Davos?

16h | Panorama
A male Baya Weaver beating wings. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Baya Weavers weave: ‘Must be witnessed to be fully credited’

20h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Attorney General's suggestion to reduce case clutter

Attorney General's suggestion to reduce case clutter

10h | Videos
Russian forces take Liman city of Ukraine

Russian forces take Liman city of Ukraine

10h | Videos
JU food prices spike, students suffer

JU food prices spike, students suffer

10h | Videos
5% tax on poultry farmers earning above Tk10 lakh

5% tax on poultry farmers earning above Tk10 lakh

10h | Videos

Most Read

1
Bangladesh Bank GM, DGM’s designation changed
Banking

Bangladesh Bank GM, DGM’s designation changed

2
Corporates go cashless…tax cut on cards
NBR

Corporates go cashless…tax cut on cards

3
Photo: Courtesy
Panorama

Misfit Technologies: A Singaporean startup rooted firmly in Bangladesh

4
British International Investment (BII) CEO Nick O’Donohoe. Illustration: TBS
Economy

BII to invest $450m in Bangladesh in 5 years

5
Representational image. Picture: Pixabay
Economy

Govt raises regulatory duty to discourage imports of 130 products

6
Photo: Collected
Industry

Spanish recycled cotton producer opens new facility in Bangladesh

The Business Standard
Top
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Bangladesh
  • International
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Economy
  • Sitemap
  • RSS

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net

Copyright © 2022 THE BUSINESS STANDARD All rights reserved. Technical Partner: RSI Lab