London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

US’ Hong Kong travel alert ‘a blow’ as officials urged to relaunch city

US’ Hong Kong travel alert ‘a blow’ as officials urged to relaunch city

Americans told to ‘reconsider travel’ to Hong Kong in wake of the national security law. City government urged to respond with global charm offensive.

A United States advisory to its ­citizens to avoid Hong Kong travel stirred up fresh controversy in the city on Tuesday, sparking concerns about a blow to its image and calls for the government to respond with an international publicity drive.

Washington told Americans on Monday to “reconsider travel” to Hong Kong on the grounds that Beijing “unilaterally and arbitrarily exercises police and security power” in the city.

Some politicians warned on Tuesday that the advisory would further damage the city’s global standing, but an immigration lawyer said he believed the travelling public would be more worried about the coronavirus than a US State Department advisory.

“I think it’s political more than anything,” Hong Kong-based lawyer Eugene Chow said of the new alert. “I don’t think the level-three travel advisory is causing people to be afraid to travel to Hong Kong, it’s the 14-day quarantine that stops people from coming here.”

The escalated guidance superseded a notice from June that suggested US citizens travelling to Hong Kong only needed to “exercise increased caution” due to the coronavirus and civil unrest in the city.

Since then, however, concerns in Washington have deepened after Beijing imposed on Hong Kong a sweeping national security law targeting acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security.

"For those US citizens who are familiar with the situation in Asia, the claim that Hong Kong is now not different from mainland China is nonsense Ronny Tong, Exco member"


The new legislation, enacted on June 30, has been invoked in a number of recent high-profile arrests in Hong Kong, including in the detaining of Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, owner of tabloid-style newspaper Apple Daily.

Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a senior adviser to the city’s leader, said restoring Hong Kong’s international image would be the government’s top priority once the coronavirus crisis was under control. This summer the administration appointed a public relations firm to help relaunch the city.

Tong slammed the US assessment that the risks of its citizens encountering the “arbitrary enforcement of laws” in Hong Kong were now the same as for the rest of China.


Ronny Tong, one of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s advisers.


But the Executive Council member conceded it could have a negative psychological impact on US citizens who had not travelled to Hong Kong recently.

“Of course, for those US citizens who are familiar with the situation in Asia, the claim that Hong Kong is now not different from mainland China is nonsense,” Tong said.

Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun said the US’ heightened travel alert for Hong Kong would have more than a psychological impact, fearing other Western countries would follow suit with similar warnings.

“Many US citizens have the impression that Hong Kong police are more civilised than their mainland Chinese counterparts. Now they may think Hong Kong is no longer the city they have been familiar with.”

Pro-establishment lawmaker Holden Chow Ho-ding, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, described the status change as a “political move”.

“Hong Kong has a low crime rate and the Covid-19 pandemic is gradually under control. It‘s even safer than the US,” he said.

But Felix Chung Kwok-pan, leader of the pro-business Liberal Party, said the US advisory would unavoidably damage Hong Kong’s international image.

“That’s why I have been urging [Chief Executive] Carrie Lam [Cheng Yuet-ngor] to tell the international community that Hong Kong is still practising ‘one country, two systems’,” he said, referring to the governing policy under which the city is allowed a high degree of autonomy.

Under the national security law, Beijing can exercise jurisdiction over “complicated” cases such as those relating to foreign interference, or when local authorities cannot enforce the new law effectively, or if the nation’s security is under major threat.

Authorities have also cited the law in their pursuit of several people living outside Hong Kong, including at least one American citizen.

Citing the legislation’s extraterritorial reach, the US State Department’s new advisory warned the law “could subject US citizens who have been publicly critical of the [People’s Republic of China] to a heightened risk of arrest, detention, expulsion or prosecution.”


Democratic Party lawmaker James


The department also repeated its warning that Beijing was spearheading a propaganda campaign to falsely accuse US citizens of “fomenting unrest in Hong Kong”.

The city was roiled by months of anti-government protests, sparked in June last year by the now-withdrawn extradition bill.

Tourism industry lawmaker Yiu Si-wing said the impact of the US escalating its travel guidance for Hong Kong would be minimal during the coronavirus outbreak.

“But it would have psychological impact on some American travellers,” he said. “The number of US travellers coming to Hong Kong could drop by 10 percentage points in the initial period of the recovery of cross-border travels.”


Anti-government protesters in Hong Kong wave US flags last December, welcoming the passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.


About 1.1 million US travellers visited Hong Kong last year, accounting for about 2 per cent of total tourist arrivals and 28 per cent of travellers from long-haul markets.

While the US State Department downgraded its specific guidance for Hong Kong, it slightly relaxed its advisory for the rest of China, lifting the “do not travel” warning it imposed in June and replacing it with advice to “reconsider travel”.

A US State Department spokesman said the decision to raise the Hong Kong warning to level three was due to the increased risk to US citizens posed by the national security law.

“We assess that the risks to US citizens in regard to arbitrary enforcement of laws are now the same as in the rest of the PRC,” the spokesman said.

The British consulate in Hong Kong said on Tuesday that it too had updated its travel advisory after the enactment of the national security law.

The statement, first issued in July, stressed that those offences under the new national security law could be applied to activities conducted outside Hong Kong. It advised British citizens to avoid protests and demonstrations.

“We keep our travel advice for Hong Kong under constant review,” a spokesman for the British consulate said.

A spokesman for the Australian consulate said it had also issued travel advice on July 9 to citizens concerned about the national security law to consider carefully the risks of staying in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, the American Chamber of Commerce, Google and Airbnb declined to comment on the advisory when approached by the Post.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×