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R 260720Z JAN 07
FM AMCONSUL HONG KONG
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INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0145
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0367
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 3496
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 1031
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HONG KONG 000256 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR ECA AND EAP/CM 
NSC FOR WILDER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL SCUL OVIP HK KPAO
SUBJECT: UNDER SECRETARY KAREN HUGHES' VISIT TO HONG KONG 
 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY:  U/S Karen P. Hughes put in one very busy day of active 
and extremely effective public diplomacy outreach in Hong Kong on 
Jan. 23, both jointly with American Public Diplomacy Envoy Michelle 
Kwan in programs pitched to youth and Hong Kong's elite, and 
separately in a meeting with the Hong Kong government Home Affairs 
Secretary and a half hour Television interview with Hong Kong Cable 
 
SIPDIS 
TV. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
Hong Kong Girl Guides 
--------------------- 
¶2.  Together with American Public Diplomacy Envoy Michelle Kwan 
(whose whole program is reported septel), U/S Hughes attended an 
informal luncheon hosted by the DPO with representatives from the 
Hong Kong Girl Guides Association.  Participants included 11 
teenaged Girl Guides (all veterans of international leadership 
camps)and Members of the Girl Guides Board of Directors, including 
Board President (and wife of Hong Kong's Chief Executive) Selina 
Tsang, Macau gaming magnate Stanley Ho, and numerous winners of Hong 
 
SIPDIS 
Kong's prestigious Bauhinia Award recognizing charitable and social 
work benefiting all of Hong Kong society.  The discussion among the 
participants was free-flowing, lively, and wide-ranging on 
leadership, setting goals, shared cultural values, family values, 
and different international experiences.  Ms. Kwan and U/S Hughes 
had a wonderful exchange with these current and future leaders of 
Hong Kong, culminating in the participants agreeing on the 
desirability of instituting an annual friendship exchange between 
girls from Hong Kong and America on the model of a Hong Kong-PRC 
"friendship caravan" in 2006 described by one the board members, or 
of including American participants in future "friendship caravans.". 
 
 
Meeting with Home Secretary 
--------------------------- 
¶3. (SBU) U/S Hughes then went to the HKSAR Government Offices for a 
meeting with Secretary of Home Affairs Patrick Ho.  American 
participants were U/S Hughes, CG James B. Cunningham, R Col. Chris 
Krisinger, PAO Anthony Hutchinson, and R Katye Balls.  Hong Kong 
participants were Home Secretary Ho, his Principal Asst. Sec. Jenny 
Yip, administrative assistant Kevin Yeung, and staffer John Chan. 
After welcoming introductions and greetings during which U/S Hughes 
described PD Envoy Kwan's program, Secretary Ho and U/S Hughes both 
discussed the importance of youth heroes in the formation of young 
people's values and direction in life, and reflected on how 
exchanges involving such heroes, including sports stars, can advance 
mutual understanding and sympathy between the youth of different 
nations.  Ho gave Hughes a brief rundown on Hong Kong's preparations 
to host the equestrian events during the 2008 Beijing Summer 
Olympics; Hughes replied by noting that the Olympics were not only a 
great sports event, but also a marvelous opportunity for China to 
showcase its modernization to the world while further opening up to 
foreign media. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Ho then gave an overview of his ministry's work, 
characterizing himself as Hong Kong's "people's minister."  He 
summarized preparations for the celebration of the Special 
Administrative Region's ten year anniversary on July 1, 2007, 
eliciting a strong statement of support from U/S Hughes of the high 
degree of autonomy promised in Hong Kong's Basic Law and China's 
"one country, two systems" approach.  U/S Hughes was able to 
emphasize to Secretary Ho the importance to the U.S. of Hong Kong as 
an international city, noting the large number of American firms and 
more than 55,000 American citizens residing in the territory. 
 
Allen Lee TV Interview 
---------------------- 
¶5. U/S Hughes then prepared for and gave an on-camera interview with 
Allen Lee, host of Cable TV's  "Feichang Zhengjing" (Unusual 
Political Perspectives) program.  Lee focused his questioning on 
U.S. policy in Iraq and the Middle East; after the interview Lee 
expressed satisfaction that his questions had been answered directly 
and frankly.  A complete transcript has been forwarded to EAP; the 
program will air Saturday January 27 at 7:30 pm local time. (Cable 
TV has 800,000 subscribers and the estimated regular minimum 
audience of Lee's program is 25,000.  The program is particularly 
popular among Hong Kong's political and business elites.) 
 
Consul General Reception; Thanks to Deep Pockets 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
¶6. Consul General James B. Cunningham hosted an evening reception 
for both U/S Hughes and Ms. Kwan the evening of January 23.  About 
80 of Hong Kong's leaders in business, media, the arts, education, 
and sports attended.  Interaction between the visitors and local 
guests was particularly warm and cordial. 
 
HONG KONG 00000256  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) In a private pull-aside during the reception, U/S Hughes 
and Consul General Cunningham were able to give formal thanks to Po 
Chung, founder of DHL Asia and recent contributor of USD 1 million 
to the Fulbright Program, a contribution that was matched by the 
Hong Kong Government.  The resulting USD 2 million Hong Kong 
Fulbright General Education Program seeks over the next three years 
to build general education in Hong Kong's universities as a means of 
fostering civil society and democratic governance in the territory. 
Later in the reception, Po Chung privately expressed to Consulate 
staff his pleasure at the small thank-you ceremony, which included 
the director of the Hong Kong America Centre, who will administer 
the program together with IIE. 
 
Themes Addressed; Washington Support 
------------------------------------ 
¶8.  Global themes addressed during the day-long program included: 
International Understanding, Counter-Terrorism, Regional Security, 
Democracy and Human Rights, Environmental Protection.  Consulate 
Hong Kong thanks our colleagues in ECA, EAP/CM, EAP/PD, and R for 
their invaluable assistance in setting up the U/S Hughes' program, 
which in our minds is a model of what Public Diplomacy programming 
is all about. 
 
CUNNINGHAM