Hong Kong has special role to play in stabilising China-US relationship, forum told

“We are well-positioned to really maximise our role as a superconnector and an intermediary between the mainland and the world.”

Ip’s comments echoed panellist Professor Huang Ping, director of the Centre for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He described Hong Kong as not only unique within the country but also the world.

He attributed the quality to the fact Hong Kong practised a capitalist system on Chinese soil, allowing it to be part of the Western economy.

“We don’t have such a place anywhere else. So Hong Kong will bridge, not only the US and China, [but also] China with the rest of the world,” he said.

Hong Kong could help address problems commonly faced by China and the United States and even ease confrontations between the two superpowers in areas such as climate change, artificial intelligence and global health, the scholar added.

Panellist Kurt Tong, who served as the top US diplomat in Hong Kong from 2016 to 2019, said US-China relations were currently stable even though engagement between the city and Washington at both official and private levels had suffered over the past five years.

“It’s a better environment for Hong Kong to make use of the agency that it has, bring its autonomy at full play, organise its messaging and decide what it wants to do as a superconnector,” Tong, now a partner at Washington-based business advisory firm The Asia Group, told the panel.

The Hong Kong government should create more opportunities for regular residents to visit the US for the purpose of establishing connections with Americans, he said.

“Reach out and rebuild the bridges. Make [the connection between Hongkongers and Americans] reinforced and even stronger. I think that will be good for the city and for the US-China relationship,” he added.

All three speakers agreed that greater engagement was needed not just at the people-to-people level but also among non-governmental organisations to help Sino-US ties improve.

Tong added a change from merely information-sharing to “outcomes-oriented negotiations” in bilateral talks would further help ties.

The themes of the three-day summit include globalisation, cooperation in science and technology, global competition and climate change, among others.