Well-known U.S. Chinese language newspaper World Journal recently reported that a Hong Kong political group attended The US-HK Dialogue that the World Affairs Council, the largest nonprofit organization for international affairs in the United States, had hosted. The group consisted of four representatives from Hong Kong’s pro-mainland parties and three from pro-democracy parties. In California, the group met Johnathan Fritz, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian & Pacific Affairs, and Hanscom Smith, Consul General representing the United States to Hong Kong and Macau, as well as people from the House Foreign Relations Committee. The event occurred right before the State Department’s annual Hong Kong Report was about to be released. The pro-mainland representatives described the conversations as frank and constructive, while the pro-democracy representatives brought detailed requests on what more the U.S. government should do on sanctioning the current Hong Kong government, especially on the human rights protection side. With the recent passage of the Taipei Act in Washington, it appears the U.S. government has a comprehensive political view on the issue of Hong Kong and Taiwan. It’s not unusual for the pro-democracy activists to visit the United States. However, pro-mainland leaders are not frequent visitors, especially not in groups. This at least made the typical label of “colluding with foreign powers” that Mainland media often gave the HK pro-democracy parties look very weak.
Source: World Journal, March 9, 2020
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