Washington isn’t budging after Beijing’s top envoy in Hong Kong tried to lay down the law with America’s new representative in the city.
Cui Jianchun, who heads China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Hong Kong, met with US Consul General Julie Eadeh on Tuesday and told her not to meddle in the territory’s affairs. According to a statement from Cui’s office, he “urged Eadeh to abide by fundamental norms governing international relations, including noninterference in domestic affairs and make a clean break with anti-China forces.”
He reportedly outlined “four don’ts” for the US diplomat: don’t meet people she “shouldn’t meet with”; don’t collude with “anti-China forces”; don’t fund or support destabilising activities; and don’t interfere in national security cases.
Eadeh only took the post in August, but her track record has already drawn fire from Beijing. Back in 2019, as political chief at the consulate, she invited pro-democracy activists to events during the first Trump administration. Ahead of this week’s meeting, Cui’s office even reposted pro-Beijing media pieces branding her a promoter of “colour revolution” and accusing her of ties to “black violence” — the official label for Hong Kong’s mass protests that year.
The State Department hit back quickly on Thursday:
US diplomats represent our nation and are charged with advancing US interests globally, which is standard practice for diplomats around the world, including in Hong Kong.
Eadeh herself has not publicly commented.
The exchange highlights how raw US-China tensions over Hong Kong remain, from Beijing’s 2020 National Security Law to last year’s tougher local legislation, which critics say crushed pro-democracy politics and shuttered outlets like Apple Daily.
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