US Termination Of Exchange Programme 'short-sighted'

The government says the US State Department’s decision to terminate a cultural exchange programme with Hong Kong is “short-sighted” and based on “false assumptions”.

The department announced on Friday that it will terminate five exchange programmes with China, including the Hong Kong Cultural and Exchange Programme, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling them "soft power propaganda tools."

Pompeo said these programmes “provide carefully curated access to Chinese Communist Party officials, not to the Chinese people, who do not enjoy freedoms of speech and assembly,” adding “one-way programs such as these are not mutually beneficial”.

In a statement on Saturday, an SAR government spokesman said the exchange programme between Hong Kong and the US had allowed both sides to “engage in frank exchanges on the basis of mutual respect”.

"The feedback we have received from our guests under this programme has been quite positive and it is a pity that the State Department has forfeited this opportunity for dialogue at a time when it is most needed,” the statement said.

The spokesman called Pompeo’s statement “false claims”, and said the Hong Kong exchange programme had always been the responsibility of, and funded solely by, the SAR Government.

“Visiting delegations were free to meet with whom they pleased outside of the agreed itinerary while in Hong Kong, and often did. It is thus simply flawed to say that the Hong Kong visits are carefully curated for propaganda effect,” the spokesman said.

“This is yet another of those unilateral and illfully motivated decisions taken by the US administration that not only undermine long-standing co-operation and engagement but also close the door on dialogue for the sake of political diatribe,” he added.