Pro-Beijing groups have staged a protest at the US consulate in Hong Kong against a senior American official’s meeting in Washington with four activists wanted by the city’s national security police.
Chanting “Hong Kong’s affairs should be addressed by China!” and “Decry US double standards on national security,” around a dozen protesters held up banners and China flags outside the consulate on Thursday.
The protest came after Daniel Kritenbrink, the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, met four overseas Hong Kong activists earlier this week. The democracy advocates – Elmer Yuen, Anna Kwok, Frances Hui and Joey Siu – have been accused of violating the national security law and are currently wanted by police.
They are among 13 self-exiled Hongkongers who have a bounty of HK$1 million on their heads.
Representatives of the two groups, which do not have English names, said the US was protecting “anti-China” elements and intervening in Hong Kong and China’s internal affairs.
“The US is openly harbouring criminals that we have issued arrest warrants for,” Don Wong, the convener of one of the groups, said. “The 1.4 billion people [of China] do not allow this.”
Jimmy Tso, the convener of the other group, accused US politicians of wanting to “cause trouble for China.”
On Thursday afternoon, the US consulate’s Facebook page shared a selfie that Consul-General Gregory May took with the pro-Beijing groups in the background.
“There is a protest outside the consulate today against the United States because we stand up for fundamental freedoms and human rights. While I respectfully disagree with these visitors’ views, I fully support their right to protest peacefully,” the post attributed to May read.
The demonstrations followed similar protests by two pro-Beijing parties, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, on Wednesday.
According to activist Anna Kwok, the US State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs invited the four to a discussion. The activists raised concerns about the city’s homegrown security law and the detention of activists Joshua Wong and Jimmy Lai, Frances Hui wrote on social media.
In a post on the US bureau’s X account, Kritenbrink said he was honoured to meet the “courageous advocates.”
“We call on Hong Kong authorities to immediately cease all efforts to intimidate people in Hong Kong and around the world, including those who call the U.S. home,” Kritenbrink said.
‘Purely China’s internal affairs’
Scores of Hong Kong activists have moved abroad in the wake of the protests and unrest in 2019, which were sparked by a controversial extradition bill amendment that would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to mainland China.
Many have continued their advocacy work overseas, engaging with politicians to raise awareness of what they have referred to as the erosion of rights and freedoms under Beijing’s national security law imposed on Hong Kong in 2020.
Hong Kong’s national security department has issued arrest warrants for 13 pro-democracy activists, most of them now based in the US and the UK, over offences including colluding with foreign forces and inciting secession. The first round of warrants was issued last July to ex-lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, among others. Police issued a second round of warrants to five activists in December.
Authorities placed a HK$1 million bounty on each to encourage people to come forward with information about them. Police have also questioned many of their Hong Kong-based family members.
During a press conference on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin was asked about Kritenbrink’s meeting with the four activists. He said Beijing “deplores and firmly opposes the blatant action of US senior officials.”
“These rioters are suspected of endangering national security. The Hong Kong police issued arrest warrants in accordance with the law,” Wang said.
“Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs that brook no external interference,” he added. “We urge the US to reflect on what it has done and fully respect China’s sovereignty and rule of law in Hong Kong.”
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