(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’s leader warned that American businesses will suffer if Washington adopts a bill to shut the city’s US trade offices, as the financial hub’s relationship frays with the world’s largest economy.
Chief Executive John Lee on Tuesday repeated China’s threat of retaliation if the US pushes ahead with an act that would close the city’s three Economic and Trade Offices in America. The US could take such action if it no longer deems the former British colony sufficiently autonomous from China.
“If the US is determined to go its way, then our country has already indicated we will retaliate — and will retaliate with strong and resolute measures,” Lee said, at his first weekly press briefing since a summer recess. “Those who suffer will be the US business sector.”
Branding the US actions “shameless and ugly political tactics” aimed at suppressing Hong Kong’s development, Lee touted America’s lucrative trade surplus with the city. American firms were the third largest group this year receiving government assistance to expand or enter the hub, he added.
InvestHK, responsible for attracting foreign direct investment, assisted over 350 non-local companies in the first seven months of the year, a 40% increase compared to 2023, according to Lee.
Hong Kong’s relationship with the US has deteriorated over a crackdown on dissent that American officials say has eroded the rule of law and democratic rights. The Biden administration was “alarmed” by the passing of a local security law in March, known as Article 23, that it said could exacerbate the “erosion of fundamental freedoms.”
The bipartisan Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) Certification Act was passed last week by the House of Representatives and must be approved by the Senate before it can be signed into law by the president.
While there’s no timetable for a Senate vote on the act, the dispute threatens to open a new area of contention between Beijing and Washington as they seek to steady ties ahead of a volatile US election season.
The Chinese embassy in the US last week vowed to take countermeasures if the US pushes ahead with the bill, without indicating what they might be.
China previously retaliated to the Trump administration’s decision to shutter the Chinese consulate in Houston by ordering the US to close its mission in the southwestern city of Chengdu. There are no direct US equivalents for Hong Kong’s trade offices in China, complicating any tit-for-tat actions.
Hong Kong has 14 Economic and Trade Offices overseas, including in Australia, Canada and the UK. They came under the spotlight in May after the British government accused an office manager at the London outpost of spying, allegations Lee said were unwarranted and unacceptable.
(Updates with China’s statement and more context after 6th paragraph.)
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