A dispute has emerged over whether Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu would have been allowed to attend an Apec summit in San Francisco last month had he not cited “scheduling issues” and sent the finance chief instead.

After a top US official told a Senate confirmation hearing that the US-sanctioned leader would not have been welcomed in the country, the Chief Executive’s Office told the Post it was “an indisputable fact” he received “from the United States an invitation addressed to him personally” to attend the Apec meeting in San Francisco.

“It was up to Mr Lee, on receiving the letter of invitation, to decide if he would attend personally or otherwise send a representative to attend on his behalf ,” the office said late on Saturday night. “Mr Lee finally decided to send the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, to attend on his behalf .”

“I do want to underscore very clearly here, we made clear to both China and Hong Kong authorities that he would not be welcome in San Francisco, and indeed he would need to be sending a second, which he did,” Campbell told a Senate confirmation hearing last week. “We never intended for him to participate.”

Campbell’s comments came during a grilling by members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as it considered his nomination by US President Joe Biden to serve as deputy secretary of state.

The US Treasury imposed sanctions on Lee and 10 other officials in August 2020, claiming they had undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy and residents’ freedom with the introduction of the national security law.

In the run-up to the summit, Lee had appealed to the US to honour its role as summit host and allow him to travel to San Francisco, but the State Department said it could not allow sanctioned officials to enter the country.

While Apec is an international organisation, it is up to the host nation to decide whether to admit officials into the country.

Just weeks before the gathering, the Chief Executive’s Office similarly said Lee had “personally received” an invitation from the US but “scheduling issues” would prevent him from attending and Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po would represent the city instead.

Hong Kong’s John Lee skipped Apec. Did the city win or lose?

Analysts warned at the time that Lee’s appearance at the summit could create yet another friction point for US-China relations and later said that citing scheduling issues as the reason he could not attend was the best way out of a delicate situation given the need to stabilise ties between the two countries.

Veteran political commentator Sonny Lo Shiu-hing previously told the Post the city leader’s absence was a “practical move” given the sanctions, and the government had resorted to “relatively polite” diplomatic etiquette to explain it.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping met Biden on the sidelines of the summit and they reached agreements covering fentanyl, military communications and artificial intelligence.

Lee remained in Hong Kong and visited an after-school care centre, met residents to explain issues put forward in his policy address and attended lunches with the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and Legislative Council members.