Senators Want to Close Hong Kong Offices in US That Act as CCP Proxies

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Jan 17, 2026 - 10:56 Updated: Jan 17, 2026 - 02:18
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Senators Want to Close Hong Kong Offices in US That Act as CCP Proxies

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A bipartisan group of senators on Jan. 15 introduced a bill that would close Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices in the United States on the basis of the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses and its current control of Hong Kong.

There are three such offices in the United States, based in San Francisco, New York, and Washington. The offices referred an inquiry by The Epoch Times to the Hong Kong government, which did not respond by time of publication.

The offices in 1997 were granted special privileges, exemptions, and immunities typically given only to official consular offices on the basis that Hong Kong was to operate autonomously from communist China. This autonomy is widely determined to have ended with Beijing’s expansion of Hong Kong’s National Security Law, which is now used to criminalize dissent against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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“As the Chinese government continues to undermine the autonomy, freedoms, and basic human rights of Hong Kongers, the time for business as usual has passed,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who introduced the bill along with senators Dan Sullivan (R-Ark.), John Curtis (R-Utah), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), said in a statement.

“Republicans and Democrats stand united in the defense of the people of Hong Kong. The United States must use the tools provided by Congress to address the Chinese government’s brazen disregard for its obligations to the people of Hong Kong.”

Merkley and Sullivan are former and current chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), which has closely monitored the situation in Hong Kong and recommended sanctions against Chinese regime officials who perpetrate human rights abuses in Hong Kong. The bill co-sponsors have also introduced the Hong Kong Judicial Sanctions Act, which would sanction Hong Kong judiciary officials found to support the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses.

The lawmakers say these Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices are now de facto secondary Chinese embassies and highlighted Beijing’s transnational repression of dissenters extending into the United States.

The bill would require the State Department to regularly review whether such offices should continue to receive privileges and terminate the offices’ operations as necessary, and give Congress authority to force termination of an office through joint resolution.

Versions of this bill have been introduced in both chambers since 2021, following years of large-scale protests in Hong Kong against Beijing’s takeover. In 2024, the bill passed the House, but did not move in the Senate. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), CECC co-chair, and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), House Democratic ranking member, have introduced companion legislation in the House.

Sullivan pointed to the Hong Kong mass protests of 2019 and 2020 and Beijing’s violent response and passage of the National Security Law as clear evidence that “Hong Kong’s autonomy is dead.”

“That being the case, it makes zero sense for Hong Kong to have its own diplomatic posts in the U.S.,” said Sullivan, adding that China and Hong Kong have more official offices in the United States than the United States has in China.

Curtis said these offices should be “shut down immediately,” and Kaine warned these offices may provide the CCP an additional foothold to expand its transnational repression in the United States.

“In recent years, we’ve seen how Hong Kong officials in the United States have done the bidding of the People’s Republic of China by promoting propaganda and opposing human rights—all while they continuing to receive diplomatic privileges and immunities,” said Kaine. He said the regime is “openly violating” Hong Kongers’ rights, and “we should not permit the [regime] to extend this campaign of oppression into the United States.”

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