House China Committee Pushes to Shut Down More Chinese Government Facilities in U.S.
‘Hong Kong is not a decided question,’ Mike Gallagher says.
‘Hong Kong is not a decided question,’ Mike Gallagher says.
T he chairman of the House China committee has requested that the State Department move to shut down the three official Hong Kong trade outposts in the U.S. — which are essentially overlooked Chinese government facilities.
Mike Gallagher, at a ceremony on Capitol Hill today to mark the second anniversary of charges tied to mass arrests that swept up 47 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures, is also expected to declare that “Hong Kong is not a decided question,” NR has learned. The language indicates his committee’s intent to bring a renewed focus on the city’s plight, according to a preview of his remarks.
The Hong Kong 47 includes prominent pro-democracy campaigners such as Joshua Wong, elected officials, and journalists, among others, who were charged pursuant to the city’s draconian 2020 national-security law following sweeping arrests in early 2021. Later today, members of the committee from both parties will mark this persecution alongside pro-democracy campaigners in the U.S.
While Beijing’s repression in Hong Kong continues (the trial of those individuals started earlier this month), and as the Hong Kong authorities work to rehabilitate the government’s international reputation, the situation has generally faded from attention in the U.S.
“The Select Committee is here today — we’re all here today — to send a message to the CCP and to prove Joshua Wong right. You can hold the brave activists captive, but you can’t contain their pursuit of freedom,” Gallagher is expected to say.
The ceremony, in addition to highlighting the show trial of the Hong Kong 47, also serves as the launch of a new push by Gallagher to spur U.S. action on Hong Kong. In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken today, obtained by National Review, Gallagher made two requests for action to assist Hong Kong’s besieged pro-democracy movement.
“I urge you to call on the Hong Kong Government to end political prosecution on Beijing’s behalf and immediately release all political prisoners,” he wrote, noting that there have been over 1,200 arrests since the national-security law was imposed. “I also request that you take appropriate actions to hold the Hong Kong Government accountable in support of Hong Kong citizens’ fight for freedom.”
Gallagher also urged that the State Department revoke the special privileges that allow the continued operation of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETO) — Hong Kong-government run outposts tasked with lobbying the U.S. government and engaging in cultural activities that enjoy a diplomatic-immunity-like status. That request comes amid an ongoing bipartisan push to pass the HKETO Certification Act, legislation that would press Blinken to act on shutting down the HKETOs. In recent days, Gallagher has also called attention to Chinese police stations operating on U.S. soil.
But while these trade offices were — unlike the Chinese government police stations in the U.S., one of which was recently shut down — authorized to operate in the U.S., lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and Hong Konger groups have argued that a 2020 U.S. decision to declare Hong Kong no longer autonomous should mean that HKETOs are treated as mainland Chinese government outposts and, therefore, shouldn’t be allowed to continue to operate here.
Earlier this year, the HKETO in New York hosted a New Year’s Eve pro-Chinese Communist Party propaganda event in Times Square, featuring Chinese consul-general Huang Ping, a Party official who has denied Beijing’s human-rights atrocities against Uyghurs.
“Agents working at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s behest shouldn’t be able to preserve their de facto immunities — typically reserved for members of the diplomatic corps and their affiliates — without any scrutiny, considering the premise of that initial arrangement no longer holds,” said two Hong Kong pro-democracy groups, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Democracy Council, in a statement earlier this month.
The State Department didn’t respond to requests for comment regarding the HKETO Certification Act.