SAMPLE LETTER TO TIGER FORK AND HI-LAWN RE HKETO SPONSORSHIP OF MID-AUTUMN NIGHT MARKET

[emily]

In case you maybe interested:
Based in Washington DC, Tiger Fork and Hi-Lawn are co-organizing the HKETO-sponsored Mid-Autumn Night Market in DC. If anyone wants to write an email to them, feel free to use any part of the letter. Their email addresses are
TO: [email protected], [email protected] . I also copied in their PR person,
CC: [email protected].

SAMPLE LETTER TO TIGER FORK AND HI-LAWN RE HKETO SPONSORSHIP OF MID-AUTUMN NIGHT MARKET I understand you are co-organizing a Mid-Autumn Night Market at Hi-Lawn on September 20 and 21 and that this event is sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.
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To Whom Its May Concern:

I am writing to ask you to dissociate yourselves and the event from HKETO.

HKETO is part of the authoritarian Hong Kong government and represents that government in the United States. The Hong Kong government is perpetrating extensive, systematic and on-going human rights abuses against Hong Kong people. HKETO has also been documented as surveilling and harassing Hong Kong activists in the Washington, DC area.

We support DC4HK (Washingtonians Supporting Hong Kong). DC4HK is part of a coalition of 24 Hong Kong advocacy groups in the United States campaigning against the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.

Below are some important facts about the Hong Kong government and HKETO:

The United States government has declared the Hong Kong government no longer autonomous under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act. This means, in effect, that the official position of the United States government is that the Hong Kong government is directly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

The United States Congress shares my concern: a bi-partisan bill currently before the House and Senate, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act could potentially lead to the closure of HKETOs in the United States. Its sponsors say, “HKETOs in the United States now serve as another mouthpiece that the Chinese Communist Party uses to obscure its long record of human rights abuses against Hongkongers and other groups that Beijing deems a threat.”

John Lee, the current head of the Hong Kong government, and therefore ultimately the boss of HKETO, has been sanctioned by the United States for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and abusing the rights of Hong Kong people, as have three other current members of the Hong Kong government. The Hong Kong government has for over three years now been carrying out an on-going crackdown. There are currently more than 1,600 political prisoners in Hong Kong. Rights of freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association have all been under attack and are drastically curtailed if not suspended while the right to political participation has been effectively abolished. On top of all this, the Hong Kong government recently issued arrest warrants and bounties for eight Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders living overseas. One of them resides in the Washington, DC area.

Hong Kong Democracy Council has recently reported multiple instances in which the HKETO conducts surveillance and intimidation of Hong Kongers living in the Washington, DC area.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art has recently ended HKETO sponsorship of its Hong Kong film festival after campaigning by Hong Kongers against the association.

HKETO seeks to whitewash the image of the authoritarian Hong Kong government abroad by sponsoring cultural events such as yours. Please do not allow yourselves to be accomplices to this cover-up.

On another note, the Belt & Road conference held in HK this week is another indication of the HK government reorienting toward the Middle East. I'll be curious whether the Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit in November is any different this year from last. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Belt- ... -East-ties
I also wonder how significant today's new is that NAB is closing its HK office. https://www.bloomberg.com