And the State Department hesitates to pass judgment.

NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE T he head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong starred in a propaganda-campaign video by the city’s pro–Chinese Communist Party government last week, amid worsening repression targeting Beijing’s political opponents. While he defended the move in a statement to National Review, people close to figures persecuted by the Hong Kong authorities condemned the appearance.

The State Department, meanwhile, declined to criticize the cameo, despite Washington’s long-standing support of the pro-democracy movement in the city.

“It is infuriating to have a leading American business voice serving as a mouthpiece of the propaganda campaign by the CCP and Hong Kong government. Especially given the timing of the mass show trial of the 47 leading pro-democracy leaders this week, AmCham is using their voice to prop up an oppressive regime,” Samuel Chu, the president of the Campaign for Hong Kong and a U.S. citizen, wanted for arrest by the Hong Kong government, told NR.

Under Hong Kong chief executive John Lee, the city’s dismantling of fundamental political autonomy has continued apace. Most recently, Lee sought and received Beijing’s approval to block Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai, a prominent media tycoon and pro-democracy figure, from retaining a U.K. law firm for his defense against the Hong Kong government’s widely decried prosecution against him.

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The trial of 47 pro-democracy figures, including movement leaders Joshua Wong and Benny Tai, began earlier this week, putting a fine point on the party’s dismantling of Hong Kong’s autonomy with the Beijing-imposed 2020 national-security law. In the years since, between harsh Covid-era controls and the political crackdown, thousands of Americans have fled Hong Kong, according to Gregory May, the U.S. consul general there.

But Hong Kong’s government wants to let foreigners know that a reopening is underway — which is why it launched a massive campaign to attract tourists to the city.

In a ceremony last week, Lee launched that campaign, dubbed “Hello Hong Kong,” with a video starring American Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong chairman Geoffrey Siebengartner and other international business figures in the city, and with a flashy promise to give away half a million free flights to people who want to visit:

While the stated intent of the video is to attract tourism, it doubles as an effort to convince foreign businesses, rattled by the city’s political climate, that Hong Kong is a stable business environment.

Just ahead of Siebengartner’s appearance in the video, another participant, the head of the British chamber of commerce, hails the city’s “sound legal system.” Siebengartner, who is J. P. Morgan’s managing director for government affairs and corporate responsibility in Asia, then appears seated at a desk in front of a computer: “Yes, we work hard.”

“Totally spoiled for choices,” Siebengartner says a little while later. “My favorite? Dim Sum,” he adds, grinning and playing with a pair of chopsticks.

In a statement to NR, Siebengartner defended the decision to participate in the video, describing it as supportive of local businesses and the community. “AmCham members support the opening up of Hong Kong’s economy and the normalization of travel to the city. As a member-funded business organization, we are committed to supporting our members’ interests and the local community where we live and work,” he said.

While Siebengartner argues that his role in the video is appropriate, others say it might signal tacit U.S. acceptance of the campaign given the long-standing relationship between the State Department and the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. (The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong is distinct from the Washington, D.C.–based U.S. Chamber of Commerce, though the latter runs an international network linking American chambers of commerce abroad.)

“I can’t think of one time, AmCham, in my nearly 25 years in Hong Kong, was ever seen as contradicting U.S. policy,” Mark Simon, a former senior executive at the now-closed Next Digital and Apple Daily, told NR. Simon, who has worked for Lai for 23 years across multiple businesses, said the Hong Kong government “sees the chamber and U.S. government as one.”

Chu pointed out that the State Department sanctioned Lee in 2020 over his work as Hong Kong’s secretary of security at the time. AmCham “should be using their leverage and voice to support freedom and rule of law, not to stand with the CCP enforcer,” he said.

Siebengartner’s collaboration with Lee’s team also highlights a broader series of controversies in which J. P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon appeared cozy with the Chinese government.

Famously, in November 2021, Dimon walked back a joke that he made about how his bank would outlast the Chinese Communist Party. “I regret and should not have made that comment,” he said. That incident followed a trip he made to Hong Kong earlier that month, during which he was granted special treatment by the city’s authorities to skip its then-onerous Covid quarantine controls. Simon told NR that Siebengartner “was key” to securing the exemptions to that Covid policy.

During a client call in August, Dimon said that “there is truth” to the party’s propaganda narrative that the U.S. is “incompetent and lazy.”

J. P. Morgan didn’t respond to a request for comment. The State Department was clear that its policy condemning the crackdown remains the same — with a spokesperson saying that the U.S. remains “seriously concerned” by the erosion of fundamental freedoms in the city — but it also sent mixed messages by declining to condemn Siebengartner’s appearance.

“The personal views and activities of private U.S. citizens are their own and do not represent the U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong and Macau, nor the U.S. government,” the spokesperson told NR.

Curiously, the spokesperson copied the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong on the email. The spokesperson didn’t answer follow-up questions about whether the State Department and Chamber were coordinating their responses.