An elderly woman holds a sign while listening to speakers during a rally in support of Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protesters, in Vancouver, on Aug. 3, 2019.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Rights activists are calling on Canada and other countries to stop according any special or diplomatic status to Hong Kong’s global network of economic and trade offices, arguing Beijing’s crackdown on the former British colony means there is no longer any point in treating it as a separate entity.
Hong Kong Watch, a British-based group whose patrons include Chris Patten, the last governor of the former British territory, said it’s not fair to allow the People’s Republic of China, or PRC, to have what amounts to two separate diplomatic missions in the same country. There are 14 Hong Kong economic and trade offices around the world.
Canada accords the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in this country the same diplomatic privileges and immunities as a consular post under a regulation passed in 1996. It has two locations: Toronto and Vancouver. China maintains an embassy in Ottawa and consulates in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.
In the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a 1984 handover treaty China signed with Britain, Beijing pledged to let Hong Kong retain autonomy over its affairs and Western-style civil liberties for 50 years. Britain turned over Hong Kong to China in 1997.
But in 2020 China imposed a new National Security Law on Hong Kong, giving the territory broad powers to quash anything deemed as secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign powers. Opposition lawmakers were later stripped of the right to run for office.
“The National Security Law in Hong Kong has not only destroyed basic rights and freedoms but has supplanted the autonomy of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and their representatives abroad, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices, that now indirectly represent the interests of the PRC,” said Anouk Wear, a research and policy adviser with Hong Kong Watch.
The watchdog in a statement said these global Hong Kong offices now function as “additional PRC embassies, managing Hong Kong’s image, publicly supporting the National Security Law and ongoing crackdown on human rights, and promoting exchanges in a way that follows Beijing’s own narratives.”
The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Canada did not respond to a request for comment regarding the proposal. The Canadian office’s website contains links promoting sweeping electoral changes imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in 2021, where only candidates approved by the government as “patriots” were allowed to run. It also contains links to websites defending and explaining the National Security Law.
Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said he agrees the Hong Kong office in Canada cannot be considered a separate body any more. “These Hong Kong offices abroad are now fully controlled by Beijing.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s department wasn’t able to immediately answer questions on the matter when contacted Wednesday.
Hong Kong Watch pointed out that the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in the United States spent millions of dollars lobbying against 2019 legislation in Congress that obliged Washington to impose sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for human-rights abuses in the Asian city.
The Hong Kong office in Canada, for its part, published statements shortly after the American legislation passed, criticizing the American legislation.
Hong Kong Watch argues the work of Hong Kong trade offices around the world “increasingly follows Beijing’s narrative” for the Asian city as part of the Greater Bay Area and a gateway to the PRC. “This replaces previous narratives such as ‘One Country Two Systems,’ which presented Hong Kong as a unique, autonomous place,” it says.
The organization said Hong Kong’s seats at the World Trade Organization and International Maritime Organization, a UN agency responsible for shipping, should also be removed “to avoid giving the PRC two seats” at these bodies.
Ivy Li, a spokesperson for the group Canadian Friends of Hong Kong, said her organization agrees the status of Hong Kong’s trade office in Canada should be reviewed, its privileges revoked and its doors shut if necessary. “There should not be a second layer of Chinese consulates” in Canada, she said.
Canada-China relations hit a low point when Beijing jailed two Canadians in apparent retaliation for the arrest of a Huawei executive in Vancouver in December, 2018. All were freed in September, 2021, when a deal was brokered by the United States. But a chill remains, and now U.S.-China relations are worsening as Beijing offers Moscow respite from Western sanctions and U.S. and Chinese officials trade barbs over Taiwan.