United States congressmen to meet Leung Chun-ying in Hong Kong on 2017 reform plan
Treatment of American delegation is in stark contrast to snub given to British parliamentary panel, which was told it could not visit HK
A bipartisan group of US congressmen is flying into Hong Kong this week to meet Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and pan-democrats to discuss the city's constitutional reform.
Hong Kong's open attitude towards the US lawmakers stands in contrast with its snub to British parliamentarians, who were told in November they could not visit the city as part of their inquiry into post-handover relations.
Leung's office yesterday confirmed a Radio Free Asia report about the meeting, but declined to give details.
Hong Kong's Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing and Labour Party chairman Lee Cheuk-yan said they would meet the Americans.
"Regardless what they think about the reform, I will tell the congressmen we will stand firm and oppose the government's proposal," Lee said.
Lee, Lau and the other 25 pan-democratic lawmakers have vowed to veto a restrictive framework for the 2017 chief executive election.
According to the Radio Free Asia report on Thursday, US Democrats Eliot Engel and Brad Sherman and Republicans Edward Royce and Matt Salmon will be in town from May 7 to 9.
Royce and Engel are the chairman and ranking member of the congressional foreign affairs committee. Salmon chairs its subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, while Sherman is the ranking member.
The four wrote to Leung last month expressing their views on the city's electoral reform and received a one-page reply from Leung. The details of those letters are not known.
Leung has toed Beijing's line, saying foreign states should not interfere with Hong Kong's reform, which is a "domestic affair".
In November, British MPs cancelled their trip to Hong Kong after Beijing's deputy ambassador to London said they would not be permitted to enter the city.
In the same month, the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing to look into the city's democratic development.
And last week in Washington, Salmon met student leaders of last year's 79-day Occupy sit-ins.
Alex Chow Yong-kang and Nathan Law Kwun-chung, past and present secretaries general of the Federation of Students, were in the US capital to speak about the protests at a four-day Interethnic Interfaith Leadership Conference that ended on Thursday. They were joined by other Chinese human rights activists.
Engel is among US congressmen who tabled a Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act early this year. The bipartisan bill seeks to update the 1992 US-Hong Kong Policy Act, under which the city gets trade and economic privileges not extended to mainland China as long as the city's autonomy is upheld.
