Beijing’s measures against United States over Pelosi’s Taiwan visit will not affect Hong Kong, top adviser Regina Ip says
- Ip says Beijing was very ‘smart’ to avoid touching on trade when it announced the cancellation or suspension of talks with the US in eight areas
- Executive Council convenor notes that a number of the city’s bilateral agreements with Washington had already been suspended in the past few years
Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, convenor of the Executive Council, the city’s top decision-making body, also on Sunday said Beijing was very “smart” to avoid touching on trade when it announced the cancellation or suspension of talks with the United States in eight different areas.
Since trade was not the focus of the countermeasures over the visit, “that suggests it is also unnecessary for Hong Kong to suspend the importation of Taiwanese goods,” Ip said.
Mainland Chinese authorities suspended imports from hundreds of Taiwanese food factories ahead of Pelosi’s visit to the self-ruled island last Tuesday. The General Administration of Customs also temporarily stopped imports of citrus fruits, chilled white scallops and frozen mackerel, citing the detection of pests in fruit shipments and positive coronavirus tests in the cold supply chain.
Tam Yiu-chung, the city’s sole delegate to China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, said the latest round of countermeasures centred on the political front instead of trade matters and he expected Hong Kong to be unaffected.