Consulado Geral dos Estados Unidos da América, Hong Kong e Macau
On May 12, 1999, the flag at the Consulate-General of the United States in Hong Kong was lowered in respect and sorrow for the people of China for a day as the aircraft carrying the bodies of victims of the NATO bombing of the People's Republic of China embassy in Belgrade came home to Beijing. Similar gestures were done in China in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang, along with the U.S. embassy in Beijing.[1]
All recent consuls-general are at the career minister rank in the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, whereas many other ambassadors are only minister counsellor.
Diplomatic relations started in 1843,[8] when the Americans established a consulate in Hong Kong with the consul working out of his residence. 9 Ice House Street (now The Galleria) began hosting the consulate in the early 1920s, and later the 1935 Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Building became the consulate's home on the second floor.[9][8] During World War II, the Americans gave the occupying Japanese army the key to the office, and after the war, the key was returned and nothing was damaged in the office.[8] However, the consul general's residence on The Peak was blown up during the war, and the Japanese used bricks from the building to create a memorial.[8]
In December 1945, the Americans and British signed the Lend-Lease Settlement Statement, an agreement designed to help the British cover post-war costs by allowing the U.S. to buy land on British colonies for government or education uses.[10] Land discussions between the U.S. consul general and Hong Kong governor began in 1946, when the Republic of China was in control of mainland China.[10] The Americans were offered the 26 Garden Road site, a plot of land measuring 47,000 square feet (4,400 m2), and in March 1947, the Americans let the Hong Kong government know that it would like to purchase the site under the Lend-Lease Settlement Statement.[10] The approval was granted three months later, and in 1954, construction plans were announced.[10] Construction was finished in June 1957, and the land lease was signed in 1960.[8][10]
In the lease, an option to purchase the land as a freehold was included. In January 1997, the U.S. wanted to exercise this option, but the proposal was rejected in favor of a 999-year lease, backdated to start on 9 April 1950.[10][11] The U.S. has the longest lease in all of the People's Republic of China, as the last 999-year lease granted before this was in 1903, meaning the consulate has 47 more years of length than the next newest 999-year lease.
In June 2013, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden claims that there is a CIA station inside the U.S. consulate general in Hong Kong, and later both the U.S. consulate and Hong Kong officials declined to comment.[12]
In March 2021, two employees from the consulate, a married couple living in Dynasty Court Tower 3, were discovered to have COVID-19 (cases 11319 and 11320).[13] Their three-year-old daughter was also found to be infected, closing her preschool, Woodland Montessori Academy.[14] Some mainland Chinese and pro-Beijing news reports, including from Dot Dot News, Global Times, and others, claimed that the family used diplomatic immunity to avoid quarantine, which both the United States and Carrie Lam denied; Lam stated that the children were sent to the hospital to join their parents.[15] The pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions and Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress staged protests at the consulate, believing that the family had invoked diplomatic immunity.[15]
In 2020, the mainland Chinese government required the U.S. consul general to obtain permission from China's Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong before meeting with local government officials or local government educational institutions; in 2023, the rule was changed so that the U.S. consul general now had to provide 5 days of advanced notice.[16]
In the May 2012 Office of Inspector General's report on the consulate,[17] the following statistics were provided on its operations:
60,000 U.S. citizens live in Hong Kong and Macau
For FY 2011, the workload included approximately 8,000 passport adjudications, 3,600 immigrant visas, 65,000 nonimmigrant visa applications, 900 consular reports of birth abroad, and 170 renunciations.
In the newer November 2017 Office of Inspector General's report on the consulate,[18] the following statistics were provided on its operations for Financial Year 2016:
125 U.S. direct-hire employees
25 Locally Employed Americans (including eligible family members)
Within the consulate, several U.S. agencies operate, including the Department of Homeland Security (Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection), the Department of Defense, and Department of Justice (Drug Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation), and the Department of the Treasury (Internal Revenue Service).
The consulate building is located at 26 Garden Road. There is an on-site gymnasium in the building.
The consulate's warehouse is located at 11/F, 14/F, and 15/F at Leader Centre, 37 Wong Chuk Hang Rd.
The consul-general lives on The Peak at 3 Barker Road,[19] paid for by American taxpayers.[20] The site includes a garage and tennis court.
In addition, the consulate owns employee residences on 37 Shouson Hill Road, where a private shuttle takes employees to the consulate building.[17] In May 2020, the consulate announced it would accept bids in an attempt to sell the six mansions, and with an agreement to re-lease them.[21] The mansions contain up to 10 bedrooms each, and measure 47,382 sq ft (4,401.9 m2) in total.[21] Bids are estimated to value the property between HKD $3.1 billion – $5 billion.[21] In February 2021, the property was given approval from Beijing for a sale at HKD $2.6 billion to Hang Lung Properties.[22] The property was bought in June 1948 for an unknown price, and construction of the buildings was completed in 1983.[21]
There are also 13 employee residences and 14 parking lots at Wilshire Park, 12–14 Macdonnell Road.[23] In addition, the United States also owns one unit at Grenville House, and one unit at Hangking Court, 43 Cloud View Road.[23]
List of U.S. consuls-general for Hong Kong and Macau[edit]
^"About Us: History". Consulate General of the United States Hong Kong & Macau. Archived from the original on January 11, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
‡ Missions which are located in countries or cities that may be considered a part of more than one continent
1 Consulates-General which function as an embassy (ie. consul reports to State Department, not the respective country's ambassador)
2 The American Institute in Taiwan is ostensibly a public, non-profit organization to promote US-Taiwanese relations, but through State Department staffing & assistance, functions as an informal US diplomatic mission.
