Washington would once again put its hypocrisy in the limelight should it carry out its plan to block the leader of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings to be held in San Francisco this November.
By virtue of the fact that Hong Kong is a member economy of APEC, HKSAR Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu is expected to attend the group’s upcoming annual summit. By depriving his rightful presence at the event, citing US sanctions on him, Washington would lay bare, with another vivid example, the nature of the “rules-based international order” it has been advocating.
According to APEC rules, a summit host has the responsibility to invite leaders of all member economies to attend the APEC summit or meeting to be held in its territory. The US, being the host of this year’s summit, is obligated to facilitate the attendance of leaders of all member economies, including John Lee.
Lee’s expected presence at the APEC summit is technically not a visit to the US. It is the APEC who authorizes the US to invite leaders of all member economies to attend the function. The right to invite participants to the function is vested in the APEC instead of the US. By stopping Lee from attending the meeting, Washington will once again tell the world that US rules override globally recognized international rules in the “rules-based international order” it favors. Should Washington eventually takes the lead to break APEC’s rules, repercussions would ensue.
US sanctions on Lee, Washington’s excuse for blocking his attendance in the upcoming APEC meeting, in the first place was a bullying act out of a hegemonic mentality. In response to the promulgation and implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong in June 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on a number of Chinese central government officials and key officials of the HKSAR government, with Lee being one of them, a move seen as a direct interference in China’s internal affairs.
It’s both the right and obligation of any sovereign state to safeguard its own national security, which is a tenet enshrined in the UN Charter and international law. In fact, the US has much more laws on national security protection in its law book. That Lee was sanctioned for fulfilling his constitutional responsibility in the capacity of HKSAR’s leader to safeguard his country’s national security further exposed Washington’s hegemonic mentality.
The author is a current affairs commentator.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.