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HK's Tung to lobby US for China's WTO entry

HONG KONG: Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa is expected to lobby the American congress to grant China entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) during his visit to the United States next week.

But political analysts said Tung has picked the wrong time to visit as it is a presidential election year in the United States and he would face an uphill battle to get his message across to US politicians.

Tung, anointed by Beijing to run this southern Chinese city after Britain pulled out in 1997, will be in Canada from April 1 to 4 and in New York and Washington from April 5 to 7.

The Hong Kong leader will meet senior members of the US administration and congressmen, as well as business leaders.

"Mr Tung will highlight the business opportunities in Hong Kong, particularly in the light of China'a imminent accession to the WTO, and the importance to Hong Kong of the United States granting permanent normal trade relations status for China," Tung's spokesman, Stephan Lam, said last week.

China and the United States are Hong Kong's largest trading partners.

The trip will be Tung's third official visit to the US since taking office in 1997. Last July, he toured California's technology heartland of Silicon Valley, hoping to boost his plan to create a high-tech Asian hub in Hong Kong.

TOUGH TRIP AHEAD

"It is much easier to fail than succeed this time," political analyst Michael DeGolyer said of Tung's US visit.

"This is an election year. It's very clear in the United States that the majority of people would prefer to continue pressure on China on human rights issues. They are not so sure they should vote to support permanent normal trade relations," he said.

Congress is expected to vote on the China deal in May. Senate support is virtually assured, but American union leaders and their allies said they were within striking distance of killing the bill in a bitterly divided House.

Taiwan's recent presidential election would also make Tung's trip tougher, DeGolyer said.

"Hong Kong supposedly and Tung Chee-hwa supposedly have this 'special role' in relations between mainland (China) and Taiwan," he said.

"If he simply repeats the China line (on Taiwan) then nothing he says on anything else will have an effect. They (US politicians) will simply write him off as a China apologist."

Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunified with the mainland by force if necessary.

DOUBTS OVER HONG KONG

Political commentator Sonny Lo said Tung, a former shipping tycoon, would be faced with questions from American politicians over Hong Kong being accused as a centre for the illegal transfer of US strategic goods and trans-shipment of illegal immigrants.

"I don't think he will be having a very successful trip in selling Hong Kong and China's entry to the World Trade Organisation," said Lo, an associate professor of political science at Hong Kong University.

Hong Kong has been accused in recent months of being a base for the trafficking of illegal Chinese immigrants after US and Canadian authorities found dozens of Chinese men hiding in cargo containers on ships bound for the United States via the territory. -Reuters