Congress Seeks to Revoke Hong Kong's Privileges

The offices operate in the United States as the official representative offices of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, but now appear to be mere appendages of China’s Communist government, according to the bill’s cosponsors, Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore). Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) and Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass) joined the CECC chairs in introducing the bipartisan legislation.

“HKETOs were given diplomatic status as long as Hong Kong remained autonomous under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ framework,” the lawmakers said. “But that framework has been obliterated by the Chinese Communist Party’s increasingly heavy-handed intervention in Hong Kong.”

The legislation recognizes the sad reality that the civil and political freedoms once enjoyed by the Hong Kong people, and guaranteed by international law, are fast receding,” they said. “HKETOs have become additional diplomatic outposts of the PRC and allowed to freely push a nothing-to-see-here narrative about Hong Kong. When there are hundreds of political prisoners in this former outpost of freedom, such a message is pure propaganda.”

The bill would require the President, 30 days after enactment, to certify whether the three HKETOs operating in Washington, New York and San Francisco merit the extension of privileges, exemptions and immunities that they currently maintain. If the President certifies that the HKETOs do not merit diplomatic immunities, the HKETOs would be required terminate their operations within six months. If the President determines that the HKETOs do merit an extension of diplomatic privileges, Congress would have the authority to offer a disapproval resolution which, if adopted, would force the administration to revoke the privileges enjoyed by the HKETOs.