Matt Salmon and CY Leung during last week’s visit
A pair of US congressmen said they were given the silent treatment by Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung when they denied the country had any involvement in the Umbrella Movement while in Hong Kong last week.
Republican Matt Salmon and Democrat Alan Lowenthal came to Hong Kong as part of a parliamentary Asia-Pacific delegation. The May 8 meeting with Leung was jointly arranged by the US State Department and the Hong Kong government.
Salmon said that during the meeting he guaranteed Leung that the United States was not involved in last year’s pro-democracy protests or the Umbrella Movement in any way.
But Lowenthal said Leung simply responded with silence.
During last year’s protests, Leung repeatedly claimed he had evidence of foreign influences in Hong Kong, which he promised to expose it at an “appropriate time”.
No concrete evidence has yet been revealed, however.
The US officials said they also asked about the possibility of compromising on the election proposals, with Salmon concluding that such opportunities have long since passed.
“It was clear to me that there is no room for any negotiation…and that going forward, it’s take it or leave it,” he said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
An official statement from the Chief Executive’s office says Leung reiterated that the proposals for the 2017 election strictly comply with the Basic Law and the decision of China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
A similar delegation from the UK Parliament was barred from visiting Hong Kong in November last year after Beijing claimed it constituted an act of “interference in Chinese domestic affairs”.
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