The Pulse：Interview with Kurt Tong, U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau

For months, the United States and China have been at loggerheads over issues of trade and technology transfer, highlighted by the controversy over the telecoms company Huawei. Now it looks as though the two countries could be about to announce a trade deal but neither side will officially confirm this. A Chinese delegation will arrive in Washington on Wednesday to ramp up the negotiations. Meanwhile, recent political events in Hong Kong, give rise to concern over whether the United States will still treat Hong Kong as an entity distinct from China under as specified in the Hong Kong Policy Act. On March 21st, the U.S. Department of State released its report on developments in Hong Kong since May last year. One of its key statements is that, “Hong Kong maintains a sufficient – although diminished – degree of autonomy under “One Country, Two Systems”. But the mood is changing and to gauge how far this is so we went to talk to Kurt Tong, the U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the proposed Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. Again, the difference in turnout estimates by the organiser and the police was huge: 130,000 and 22,800 respectively. There is however common agreement that this was the largest demonstration since the end of the Umbrella Movement three years ago.