New US consul general to Hong Kong set to arrive this month

The new head of the US consulate in Hong Kong, Gregory May, is set to arrive this month, according to a person familiar with the matter.

May has served in US embassies in Beijing and Mongolia and the consulate in Guangzhou, according to his profile on the State Department website. He was also consul general in Shenyang. 

May was a journalist in Taiwan from 1993 to 1996, and also worked at the Nixon Center, a foreign policy think tank, where he specialized in Chinese studies.

The decision to name a career diplomat with greater China experience was made “at least in part to avoid adding further tension” between the US government and officials in Hong Kong and China, local media reported earlier, citing an unidentified source. 

US-China tensions have escalated as Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, and Washington sanctioned dozens of Chinese and Hong Kong officials, including its former head Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

(Bloomberg)