An independent English-language media outlet in Hong Kong recently reported that data shows that the Hong Kong government has spent nearly $100 million in recent years to hire several U.S. lobbying groups to lobby the U.S. political class, but has been unable to stop the U.S. Congress from passing a number of bills related to Hong Kong.
Recently, the Hong Kong Free Press reported that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority reviewed documents submitted by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) over the years and found that from 2014 to 2020, the HKTDC paid nearly HK$84 million ($10.8 million) to U.S. lobbying firms. HK$10.8 million ($10.8 million).
During this period, HKTDC also received bills from its headquarters for operating expenses totaling HK$374 million ($48.2 million). The source and destination of these funds are covered by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) regulations that require disclosure.
According to documents in the Import/Export Database (FARA database), HKTDC lobbyists have held at least hundreds of calls and meetings with U.S. Senators, Representatives, and their staff, following the outbreak of mass protests in Hong Kong in 2014 and 2019, including at least six face-to-face meetings devoted to the U.S. Hong Kong Bill of Rights and Democracy.
On September 12, 2019, one week prior to the vote on the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and Democracy, Hong Kong’s Commissioner General for Economic Affairs and Trade in the United States, David Mak, met with then-opposition Democratic California Congressman Alan Lowenthal through an arrangement with former Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak’s lobbying group, Venable LLP, as ” intermediary”.
That same week, Hong Kong protest leaders Wong Chi-fung, Ho Yun-sze, and Chang 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, and a week later, on September 25, the motion was passed almost unanimously.
The following day, Bart Stupak met with Democratic Representative Eliot Engel, then Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who issued a statement strongly supporting the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and Democracy.
On November 27, 2020, then-President Trump signed the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and Democracy Act, which requires the U.S. Department of State to submit annual reports to Congress to determine whether Hong Kong’s self-governing status continues to meet the requirements of the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 and to consider whether Hong Kong should continue to receive special treatment on that basis.
The bill also requires the President of the United States to submit, within 120 days of the Act’s entry into force, the names of those responsible for Hong Kong’s suppression of fundamental freedoms and human rights, including press and publication, and for the extradition of relevant persons to the Mainland for detention and trial; and to freeze the property of those responsible in the United States and deny them entry into the United States, in accordance with the law.
In addition, in March this year, HKTDC again contracted with another lobby group, BGR Government Affairs, for HK$2.8 million to promote Hong Kong’s independent economic and tariff status. But last year the Trump administration already revoked Hong Kong’s special status.
Hong Kong’s exiled former legislator, Mr. Lo Koon-chung, sarcastically described the Hong Kong government as a “loyal waste” on his Facebook page. He said that the bill was passed unanimously in the Senate and overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives with only one vote against it.
After the lobbying efforts of the Hong Kong government came to light, a spokesman for the Hong Kong government claimed that its representatives in Washington, D.C., “took the initiative to explain the situation in Hong Kong to our interlocutors and contacts” and raised “strong opposition to the Hong Kong bill.
The information released so far does not clearly show how the HKTDC office in the U.S. spent the huge sums of money mentioned above over a period of about six years.
“Hong Kong Free Press reported that the HKTDC first opened an office in the United States in 1970 to promote business exchanges between the two countries. Registered as a non-profit organization in New York, the organization hosts dozens of business events in the U.S. throughout the year, such as receptions, seminars, dinners and roundtables to discuss trade and development business in Hong Kong or Asia. In addition, HKTDC spends a great deal of money on advertising and promoting Hong Kong trade shows.
A central source of data for this coverage includes The Center for Responsive Politics, based in the United States. The Center specializes in tracking money in U.S. politics and its impact on elections and public policy.
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