The United States has dismissed a warning issued by Beijing’s top diplomat in Hong Kong to Washington’s new Consul General in the city, telling her not to interfere in the Chinese-run territory’s internal affairs.
Cui Jianchun, commissioner of the Hong Kong office of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, warned Julie Eadeh about her conduct during a meeting on Tuesday, according to a Thursday statement issued by the Chinese official’s office.
The statement said Cui “urged Eadeh to abide by fundamental norms governing international relations, including noninterference in domestic affairs and make a clean break with anti-China forces”.
In the meeting, Cui reportedly laid out “four don’ts” for the US diplomat. He instructed her not to meet people she “shouldn’t meet with”; not to collude with “anti-China forces”; not to assist or fund activities that might undermine the city’s stability; and not to interfere with Hong Kong’s national security cases.
The warning came after Eadeh, who took up the role as the US representative in the city in August, invited pro-democracy figures to events when she was political chief of the US consulate in Hong Kong in 2019 under the first Trump administration.
In a statement on Thursday, the US Department of State dismissed Cui’s warning, saying: “US diplomats represent our nation and are charged with advancing US interests globally, which is standard practice for diplomats around the world, including in Hong Kong.”
This week’s meeting between Cui and Eadeh underscores ongoing tensions between Beijing and Washington over democratic backsliding in Hong Kong, as well as the wider issues of trade, technology and Taiwan.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, which is granted a degree of autonomy as part of the “one country, two systems” agreement that saw the former British territory returned to Beijing in 1997.
Governance in the city, however, has grown increasingly authoritarian in the almost three decades since, say critics.
Massive antigovernment protests against Beijing’s rule, which began in 2019, resulted in China imposing a National Security Law in June 2020, criminalising secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion. Hong Kong’s Legislative Council then unanimously passed tough new legislation in 2024, expanding the government’s power to crush the city’s pro-democracy movement.
This security legislation has been used to jail activists, while local news outlets, most notably the Apple Daily, have been shuttered.
Prior to his meeting with Eadeh, Cui’s office reposted articles from several pro-Beijing outlets critical of the US diplomat, including one on Saturday describing her as a promoter of “colour revolution” – a term referring to a mass protest movement seeking regime change.
The article referenced Eadeh’s meeting with pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong and Nathan Law during the 2019 protests, accusing the diplomat of having close links to “black violence” – a term used by pro-Beijing officials to refer to the protests.
Another article reposted by China’s office in Hong Kong criticised Eadeh for inviting prominent pro-democracy legislators Anson Chan and Emily Lau to her events.
Eadeh is yet to publicly comment on her meeting with Cui.
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