Last week, the Chinese official media claimed that the arrested businessman Henry Li acted as a “middleman” to arrange for Hong Kong protest leaders such as Law Kwun Chung to meet with American dignitaries, which Law refuted as a smear campaign. However, Hong Kong’s independent English-language media “Hong Kong Free Press” reported that the Hong Kong government has spent nearly 100 million Hong Kong dollars in recent years, hiring a number of U.S. lobbying groups to arrange meetings with U.S. lawmakers, but still did not prevent the U.S. Congress to pass a number of bills related to Hong Kong.
“HKFP found that a week before the U.S. House and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees voted on the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and Democracy, that is, on September 12, 2019, Hong Kong’s Commissioner General for Economic Affairs and Trade in the United States, David Mak, was arranged to meet with then-opposition Democratic California Congressman Alan Lowenthal, by Former Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak’s lobbying group Venable LLP acted as a “go-between”.
In the same week, Hong Kong protest leaders Wong Chi-fung, Ho Yun-sze and Cheung Kun-yang went to the United States to attend the hearing, and Bart Stupak sent three more emails to arrange lobbying for the Hong Kong government. Finally, the bill was passed almost unanimously by the House and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees on September 25.
Bart Stupak met with Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel, then Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on September 26, and Eliot Engel issued a statement strongly supporting the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and Democracy. It is not known if Mr. McDavid attended the meeting.
The above meetings were funded by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Mr. McDowell is a representative of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Washington, D.C., which is part of the Hong Kong Commerce and Economic Development Bureau. Under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, the lobbying expenditures and actions of foreign political organizations in the United States must be registered and made public, so the Hong Kong government’s lobbying activities are recorded and available online. Similar lobbying by foreign political organizations is normal and common in the United States.
In addition, in March this year, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council again for HK$ 2.8 million, and another lobbying group BGR Government Affairs contract, “to promote Hong Kong’s independent economic and customs status. But last year, the former U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo, when in office, has indicated that the abolition of Hong Kong’s special status.
The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau replied to “HKFP” that the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Washington has been taking the initiative to visit different channels, including intermediary groups and their own contacts, to refute the misunderstanding of Hong Kong.
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