The United Nations Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963) could not be more precise: Foreign missions “have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of the (host) state.” Yet, the US ambassador in Beijing, Nicholas Burns, and its consul general in Hong Kong, Gregory May, continue to violate that treaty.

Both repeatedly lambast their host for conducting internal policies that have no consequence for the US. No other diplomatic mission in Beijing or Hong Kong has openly criticized their host in such a public and hostile manner. They should adhere to diplomatic decorum and maintain a low profile befitting their post.

The Vienna Convention stipulates foreign missions’ rules and obligations and effectively guides how their business is conducted. For example, Article 55 states: “Without prejudice to their privileges and immunities, it is the duty of all persons enjoying such privileges and immunities to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving state. They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of the state.”

The convention says in its preamble that the charter is designed to maintain international peace and security and promote friendly relations among nations. However, the rhetoric between the US, China, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region can hardly be called “friendly”. Time and again, Beijing and Hong Kong authorities are called upon to rebut slanderous and unwarranted comments by US diplomats.

Only recently, the Commissioner’s Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in the HKSAR hit out at the US Consulate in Hong Kong for making slanderous comments that the Chinese central government was violating human rights in the city. The consulate posted those denigrating remarks on its official X (Twitter) account, citing a UN review of China’s human rights record.

The consulate’s slanderous comments were unnecessary and unwarranted, and directly interfered with China’s internal affairs. The UN review had nothing to do with the US, and if there is to be a response to the review, it should come from Beijing, not the US.

Two months earlier, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies seminar, Consul General Gregory May publicly called for Hong Kong authorities to withdraw bounties on overseas activists; release media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who was facing sedition and colluding with foreign government charges; and release the “National Security Law 47” and others in detention facing charges against national security. He said he had witnessed “soft repression” in Hong Kong when the authorities have “curtailed” various freedoms.

Who does he think he is? What right does he have to tell the people of Hong Kong what we should or should not do? What May has demonstrated is total arrogance and disrespect toward his host. Hong Kong has its issues and will handle them accordingly, without the help of foreign governments. Imagine the uproar in the United States if China’s ambassador in Washington called for the prosecution of Donald Trump or called the Jan 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol Building a peaceful demonstration.

May has also violated another clause in the Vienna Convention’s Article 55, which states that consuls should “respect the laws and regulations of the receiving state”. By attacking Hong Kong’s laws and calling for the Hong Kong authority to free defendants facing criminal offenses, May again showed contempt for Hong Kong’s laws, which is a total violation of the Vienna Convention.

US Ambassador Nicholas Burns in Beijing is a bit more diplomatic but is still obliged to toe the US State Department’s anti-China line. In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, he said China was “interrogating and intimidating citizens who attend US-organized events in China, ramping up restrictions on the embassy’s social media posts and whipping up anti-American sentiment”.

Interestingly, the US is the only country that uses its diplomatic missions in China as its mouthpiece for foreign policy. Normally, criticism against a country is carried out by a foreign ministry directly without involving its overseas missions.

This indicates that the attacks by May and Burns are deliberate and at the behest of the secretary of state in Washington to undermine China’s reputation. By openly criticizing Hong Kong and fighting against the special administrative region’s legal system, the US is raising the flag for those it has cultivated to undermine Hong Kong. It is, in reality, a cold war that can be resolved only by peaceful dialogue, not a war of words.

The author is a former chief information officer of the Hong Kong government, a PR and media consultant, and a veteran journalist.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.