text | Zheng Ganyan
On the 325th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to , Hong Kong's Typhoon Shelter, Tsui Mun, Hong Kong, held an dragon boat race on October 2. During this period, a rare ship collision occurred. An dragon boat lost control and deviated from the channel to the right, crashed into another dragon boat at a high speed. A male paddler was hit by the disaster and almost fell into the sea. He was furious and cursed on the spot. The video went viral on the Internet. The US Consulate General in Hong Kong and Macao posted on the afternoon of October 3, saying that yesterday it also participated in another Dragon Boat Championship held in Stanley , winning the championship in its category, and even "pull a water".
Consulate 0: "After several months of preparation, I have the dragon boat team of the US Consulate General in Hong Kong and Macao to participate in Sunday's Stanley Dragon Boat Championship! This time I have to break my own record and win the Silver Cup championship in the open group! Do you have any suggestions to wait until I will win the next time?" The following post also left the hashtags "#Safety first" and "#No collision", which seemed quite friendly.
The new US Consul General in Hong Kong and Macao, Gregory May, is well-versed in Chinese. After taking office, he is also very interested in Hong Kong's authentic culture. He often takes public transportation and appreciates Chinese food. It can be seen in the post that Mei Rurui also came to support the Dragon Boat Team. Below the post, netizens were attracted by the theme tag "no collision", and some even laughed and said, "I'm not fussing the ship, I'll win the championship." The consulate replied, "No one can win the championship beforehand." Mei Rurui's soft posture is meaningful.
The new US Consul General in Hong Kong and Macao Mei Rurui arrived in Hong Kong on September 16 to take up his position, replacing Shimoke (Hanscom Smith), who left office in July. According to the consulate, Mei Rurui served as assistant director and research assistant in China at the Washington Foreign Policy Think Tank (Nixon Center). "China Daily " produced a one-minute short film in 2018, introducing Mei Rurui as a US Consul General who is eager to learn "Shenyang accent" to experience authentic Shenyang life. This diplomat, who has a lot of connections with China, has also been sent to the Consulate General of Guangzhou and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
Some analysts said that the United States decided to send a professional diplomat with many years of experience in Greater China, partly to avoid the intensification of tensions between Washington and Hong Kong and Beijing officials. Mei Rurui's friendship with the Chinese government and his knowledge of Mandarin will help prevent the rise of Sino-US political confrontation.
Shi Moke, who just stepped down in July, criticized the National Security Law for weakening Hong Kong's autonomy and urged Beijing to "let Hong Kong be back to Hong Kong." But Mei Rurui has been silent about the National Security Law for more than half a month after taking office. Unlike the frequent meetings between Shi Moke and Hong Kong rioters, the US Consulate held a welcome dinner at the American Club in Datan on September 27, during which the Hong Kong opposition was absent.
The United States used the promulgation and implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law to roughly interfere in China's internal affairs, and attempted to interfere in Hong Kong affairs by canceling Hong Kong's special treatment and signing and implementing the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act". From an economic perspective, the "special treatment" mentioned by the United States has repeatedly involved the trade areas between Hong Kong and the United States, including bilateral agreements, free currency exchange, visa approval, and the cancellation of Hong Kong's status as an independent tariff area.
First, the United States has little substantial impact on Hong Kong's tariff increase. Because Hong Kong as an independent tariff area is recognized by WTO , its international status is not given by a certain country. All the United States can do is unilaterally no longer regard Hong Kong as an independent tariff area, and it will not affect Hong Kong's international status as an free trade port . Secondly, if the United States announces restrictions on the US dollar for foreign exchange transactions in Hong Kong, then the limit is actually the US dollar, which will force more banks and customers to hold the RMB and Hong Kong dollars instead and give up using the US dollar for settlement. In the long run, the US dollar's special status as an international currency will inevitably weaken. In addition, as the largest source of surplus in the United States, Hong Kong has brought a trade surplus of nearly US$30 billion to the US economic development every year. The cancellation of special treatment in Hong Kong will cause greater losses to US financial institutions, which can be said to be "injuring eight hundred enemies and hurting one thousand themselves."
The US sanctions on Hong Kong will only bear fruit. Hong Kong's prosperity and stability are related to the interests of 85,000 Americans in Hong Kong and more than 1,300 American companies in Hong Kong, and the average annual average US$30 billion, the highest bilateral trade surplus in the past 10 years, and the United States' economic and trade network and financial status in the Asia-Pacific region. This is the main reason why American companies keep making confessions to the US’s “Hong Kong Card”. The first thing that will be affected by the cancellation of Hong Kong's independent tariff zone will be the American companies in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the seventh largest commodity trading system in the world, the eighth largest export and the eighth largest import region in the world. The United States regards Hong Kong as an independent tariff entity. Trade re-exported into China through Hong Kong is not included in U.S.-China trade. Hong Kong can exempt U.S.-China tariffs. As Asia's largest re-export trading port, China's goods exported to the United States through Hong Kong in 2018 were as high as 8% of China's total exports, with a total value of US$37 billion; the US goods imported by China through Hong Kong also accounted for 6% of China's total imports, with a total value of US$10 billion. Once Hong Kong is revoked its tariff autonomy, it will lose the tax-free advantage of Sino-US re-export trade, and the impact on the United States can be imagined. The United States' attempt to undermine Hong Kong's prosperity and stability by playing the "Hong Kong card" and curb China's development will not succeed. Because the United States will definitely suffer bad consequences when playing the "Hong Kong card".
