A group of Hong Kong residents celebrate the passage of the national security law for Hong Kong and mark the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong returning to China in Causeway Bay on Tuesday. Photo: Xinhua

The former chief executive of Hong Kong Leung Chun-ying said the recent meeting between the US Consul General in Hong Kong and Hong Kong political figures who are also instigators of riots is a major political scandal, and demanded that they explain the contents of their discussion to the Hong Kong society.

Hanscom Smith, the US Consul General in Hong Kong and Macao, met the pan-democratic Civic Party chairman Alan Leong Kah-kit at Leong's law offices on Tuesday.  Hong Kong media reported that it was the first meeting since the national security law for the city was enacted.

Leong has publicly expressed support for rioters amid the social unrest in 2019, making remarks smearing China's Communist Party and stigmatize Hong Kong police for violent enforcement.

Leong's party colleague Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu also attended the meeting, prompting many to suspect collusion. Yeung is one of the 12 candidates disqualified from the Legislative Council (LegCo) election. He visited the US in 2019 amid the social unrest, and begged US lawmakers to impose sanctions against Hong Kong. 

Although Leong explained that the meeting was a regular one that gives recent updates on Hong Kong, Leung Chun-ying, who is also the vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, shared his doubts with Hong Kong-based media outlet Wen Wei Pao Wednesday. "Why does a Hong Kong party leader need to have regular meetings with the US Consul General?" 

"Why have we never seen them regularly meeting with representatives from the central government in Hong Kong and HKSAR government officials? These are also questions for the Hong Kong people," Leung said. 

People in Hong Kong have expressed doubts about the purpose of the meeting, especially in the context of China-US tensions and Western interference in Hong Kong affairs. Analysts believe the meeting is a dangerous move for Hong Kong's stability and China-US ties.

According to the standards of international society and any open and democratic society, the meeting is a scandal in the current situation, Leung said. He also mentioned in a Facebook post that it is not normal that the US Consul General in Hong Kong attended the meeting on his own without recording it. 

Hong Kong citizens' group Jonny Patriotic 101 on Wednesday called on police to investigate the meeting, alleging that the Civic Party had colluded with foreign forces in violation of the national security law. The group said that the meeting could be "held in the sunlight" if it did not involve political collusion, demanding that the contents of their meeting be made public, media reported. 

"If solid evidence is found to confirm their dirty evil collusion plot, we must permanently delete the registration of the Civic Party as a legal organization and ban all their party members from running in our LegCo elections!" Leo Cheung, a Hong Kong internet user, remarked under Leung's post. 

Some netizens also called for the closure of the US consulate in Hong Kong and Macao, which is regarded as an intelligence base for collusion and subversion. 

The national security law for HKSAR made it clear that secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security will be punished, with the maximum penalty being life in jail.