US-HK Relations May Improve Under Biden: HK Academic

A Hong Kong academic said on Sunday that economic relations between Hong Kong and the United States may improve under president-elect Joe Biden.

Francis Lui, an adjunct economics professor with the University of Science and Technology, told a radio programme that the Sino-US trade war should ease with Trump's departure.

He said Democratic Party supporters - especially economists - generally opposed Trump’s economic policies and trade policy, adding that Biden might heed their advice and ease back on some Trump measures.

But Lui said the new administration may not lift its political sanctions against Hong Kong.

“Biden will not use very strong language to talk about Hong Kong… so in that sense we can expect that the Biden administration will be more friendly... to Hong Kong. But the American national policy of containing China will not really change," he explained.

“I don’t think that the [US] policy towards Hong Kong will undergo drastic changes. There may be some small changes. Perhaps the Hong Kong government may try to lobby the US government to lift those sanctions, but the Hong Kong government by itself is not really powerful enough, so it may have to depend on China.”

“But since those sanctions were voted in a bi-partisan way in the Congress and also in the Senate, so the possibility for quick changes will be very unlikely.”

Meanwhile, world leaders from Canada, Britain, Germany and Japan have congratulated Biden on his presidency.

"The US is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together on our shared priorities, from climate change to trade and security," said British prime minister Boris Johnson.

"We look forward to working with the next US administration. We want to invest in our cooperation, for a transatlantic restart and a New Deal," said German foreign minister Heiko Maas.

In Asia, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he looked forward to working with the new administration to further strengthen the alliance between the two countries.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in tweeted that he was looking forward to working with his team for shared values and future relations. (Staff reporter and Reuters)