The appointment of Julie Eadeh as the new US Consul General in Hong Kong does not auger well for the city. In her previous posting here, she took an active role in the 2019-20 riots which rocked the very foundations of Hong Kong.
Photographs of her meeting with student activists Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and others at a hotel and at the consulate during the disturbances while she was head of the political department at the consulate went viral in the local and social media. It was seen by many at the time to be a direct US interference in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.
Now she is being criticised for reaching out to far-left activists in Hong Kong within the first month of her tenure in her new post. Meetings with former Chief Secretary Anson Chan and former legislature councillor Emily Lau, both sympathisers of the rioters, have been seen as an indication of Eadeh’s priority in dealing with Hong Kong matters.
Chief Executive John Lee said at a media briefing on Tuesday that consuls should perform their duties in Hong Kong in a manner befitting their diplomatic status and refrain from interfering in China's internal affairs and Hong Kong's affairs under any pretext or in any form.
“They should respect China's sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong. I hope all consuls in Hong Kong will engage in constructive activities, not destructive activities,” he said. Of course he was referring to the US Consul General.
And Eadeh has been warned by Chinese authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong not to cross the “red lines” by interfering in China’s or Hong Kong’s affairs. The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) accused Eadeh of “being back in the old game” of disrupting the city. She is being closely watched.
Eadeh has taken over the consul general’s job from Gregory May who has been transferred to Beijing as the US’s deputy chief of mission there. May was very outspoken on China and Hong Kong policies during his Hong Kong posting and was berated many times for interfering in local affairs. Eadeh served under May as the consulate’s political director.
She has had a colourful career having served in Ankara, Doha, Shanghai, Bagdad, Riyadh, Beirut and, of course, Hong Kong. When she joined the foreign service in 2004, she covered human rights issues including the first ever elections in Saudia Arabia. She assisted in the largest evacuation of American civilians in Lebanon in 2006. She also speaks fluent Putonghua, which would have helped her in her Shanghai posting from 2010-2012.
Hong Kong has 70 diplomatic missions, of which 62 are consulate generals, meaning all, except one, answer to their embassies in Beijing. Eight are consulates.
The one exception is the US Consulate General which answers directly to China hawk, the new Secretary of State in Washington, Marco Rubio.
It will be Rubio who will direct Eadeh on the line to take in relation to Hong Kong affairs, including trade and political issues.
The combination of Rubio and Eadeh dictating the US’s role over Hong Kong is like vultures hovering over our skies looking for easy pickings. But it will not be easy for them. Hong Kong people are fully aware of their ill-defined intentions and will look at anything coming out of the consulate with caution and suspicion. It cannot be trusted.
Rubio, who served as a Republican congressman before accepting the Secretary of State job, sponsored the bipartisan Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which required the U.S. government to impose sanctions on officials implicated in human rights abuses in Hong Kong.
Following the U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions on Hong Kong's former Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other officials in 2020, China retaliated with tit-for-tat sanctions against Rubio and five other Republican legislators.
"China has decided to impose sanctions on individuals who have behaved egregiously on Hong Kong-related issues," the Chinese foreign ministry said at the time.
The Rubio/Eadeh relationship could spell disaster for Hong Kong and given her human rights background and previous Hong Kong experience during the 2019 riots, it appears she was placed in this new position on purpose – to fulfill the US objective of dismantling Hong Kong to slow down China’s rapid growth and development. Beware of the enemy within.
Mark Pinkstone
** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **
As Hong Kong has been developing in leaps and bounds, so has its medical services increased to meet local demands.
And with planned new hospitals in the Northern Metropolis along with current expansion and construction development, expertise is expected to increase and the dreaded waiting times for patients will be considerably reduced.
Hong Kong is poised to be the medical centre of Asia.
Currently, Hong Kong has about 36,000 beds in 43 public hospitals and 14 private hospitals. And already they are overcrowded, aided undoubtedly by an increasing aging population. Patients have to wait up to two hours for a consultation in public hospitals and up to a year or more for onward specialised bookings for appointment.
But that is about to change. Opening on December 11 in Tseung Kwan O will be the 400-bed Chinese Medicine Hospital of Hong Kong run by the Baptist University under the umbrella of the Health Bureau of the government and not to be confused with the Hospital Authority which runs all public hospitals and clinics in Hong Kong.
This is a major breakthrough for Chinese medicine (CM) to be fully integrated with research into western-Chinese medicines while serving the community. It will be the flagship for the 18 Chinese medicine clinics already operating in all districts in Hong Kong.
In its first year of operation, it will provide only outpatient 25 beds and day-patient services and six specialised CM services – internal medicine, external medicine, gynaecology, paediatrics, orthopaedics and traumatology, and acupuncture and moxibustion. It will also provide 12 special disease programs including those for elderly degenerative diseases and stroke rehabilitation.
Inpatient services will start from late next year, with other services expanding year by year, including the remaining 11 special disease programs. It is expected that by the end of 2030, the hospital will provide full inpatient services with its 400 patient beds, as well as outpatient services of 400 000 annual attendances.
Construction is also well underway and above the foundations for the North District Hospital (NDH) extension in Sheung Shui. The expansion of NDH mainly covers the construction of a new hospital block, refurbishment, alteration and addition to existing hospital building, and the provision of associated internal roadworks as well as external and landscaping works. Upon completion of the expansion project in about 2028, the hospital will provide about 1,500 additional beds, atop of its 680 existing beds.
And then comes the mother of all hospitals: The Northern Metropolis Hospital in Ngau Tam Mei, south of Yuen Long, is developing a new integrated medical teaching and research hospital which will become the flagship hospital of the Northern Metropolis with about 3 000 beds, providing comprehensive healthcare services for the new population in the area.
Last year in his policy address, the Chief Executive John Lee announced plans for developing a new integrated medical teaching and research hospital which will become the flagship hospital of the Northern Metropolis, providing comprehensive healthcare services.
The area is a goldmine for development. Representing about one third of Hong Kong’s total land area, existing agricultural land and fishponds will be turned into a massive hub for international scientific and technical research and development.
In the First Hospital Development Plan, there are three projects in two clusters, including the expansion of North District Hospital, the redevelopment of Prince of Wales Hospital, and the extension of Operating Theatre Block for Tuen Mun Hospital. It is anticipated that a total of 1 950 additional beds and other hospital facilities will be provided by 2031 in the New Territories after the completion of the three projects, bringing the physical bed capacity in the east and west clusters in the New Territories to about 12 000 beds.
Most importantly on the backburner is a decision by the Chief Executive in Council (ExCo) last year that a site of about two hectares be reserved in the San Tin Technopole (between Yuen Long and Sheung Shui) for healthcare facilities “which may include private hospital use.”
A private hospital in the New Territories opens up many possibilities, including medical tourism.
The Chinese medical hospital will draw in many tourists from the mainland and Asia seeking medical help through traditional Chinese and western medicine methods. A tourism hospital situated along the Chinese boundary will boost tourism figures ten-fold.
A case in point is the Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. It is a classic example of how the private sector can benefit in healthcare. Founded in 1980, Bumrungrad International Hospital has been a global pioneer in providing world-class healthcare services and international patient support for nearly four decades. The hospital is an internationally accredited, multi-specialty hospital listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand since 1989. It is, perhaps the largest private hospital in Southeast Asia, caring for more than 1.1 million patients annually from more than 190 countries.
