The Next Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit will be held in San Francisco in November. In recent months, many groups and organizations have urged the U.S. government to prohibit the sanctioned Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu from entering the United States.
The Hong Kong Democracy Council, Hong Kong Watch, and scores of overseas Hongkonger groups, as well as Uyghur and Tibetan organizations, a total of more than 50, jointly signed an open letter on June 30, calling on the U.S. government to make a prompt and clear statement that Lee is not allowed to attend the APEC summit.
The open letter stated that under no circumstances should Lee, “a U.S.-sanctioned human rights abuser,” be allowed to set foot on American soil. And if that were to occur, it would render the “sanctions on him effectively meaningless and damage confidence in the U.S. commitment to freedom and human rights in Hong Kong.”
The letter also raised concerns that any temporary or permanent waiving of sanctions on Lee would set a troubling precedent for future dealings with human rights abusers, opening the door for further exceptions to be made.
It would also point to signs that the West’s resolve on Hong Kong is weakening, such as recent high-level meetings with ministers in the Hong Kong government. And they believe that “this makes it all the more important for the United States to stand firm and set a good example to the rest of the world.”
Precedents of No Invitation Exist
The open letter emphasizes that there are strong precedents for not inviting Lee. Last year, the Biden administration excluded Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela from the Summit of the Americas over concerns about human rights abuses and a lack of democracy in those countries.Opposition from Multi-Party Lawmakers in Congress
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman hinted in February that the U.S. might drop its entry restrictions on Lee. But her remarks caused an uproar among lawmakers from both parties. Four bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress jointly signed a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month, expressing their opposition to inviting John Lee to attend APEC.Later, the U.S. State Department revised part of a statement submitted to Congress. The revised edition stated that it did not commit to inviting Hong Kong Chief Executive Lee Ka-chiu to the United States to attend the next APEC summit.