RUNDOWN:
11:30     Private Reception for President’s Circle and Corporate members only
11:55     General Registration
12:10     Welcoming Remarks
12:15     Lunch
12:55     Opening Remarks
13:00     Keynote Speech
13:15     Fireside Chat
13:35     Q&A with Audience
13:55     Closing Remarks
14:00     End

ASHK Members: HKD 580
Non-Member Ticket: HKD 680

Asia Society Hong Kong Center is proud to present Ambassador Kurt Tong, Managing Partner at The Asia Group and former US Consul General in Hong Kong and Macau, to discuss the importance of Hong Kong’s unique position in a region buffeted by shifting geopolitical winds. In conversation with Professor Christine Loh, Asia Society Hong Kong Center Scholar-in-Residence, Ambassador Tong will consider the view of China and Hong Kong from Washington, the keys to Hong Kong’s competitiveness, and the risks that may challenge Hong Kong in the future.

Ambassador Kurt Tong is Managing Partner and member of the Executive Committee at The Asia Group, where he leads consulting teams focused on Japan, China and Hong Kong, and on East Asia regional policy matters. A leading expert in diplomacy and economic affairs in East Asia, Ambassador Tong has thirty years of experience in the Department of State as a career Foreign Service Officer and member of the Senior Foreign Service.

Prior to joining the Asia Group, Ambassador Tong served as consul general and chief of mission in Hong Kong and Macau where he led U.S. political and economic engagement. Prior to that role, he served as the principal deputy assistant secretary for economic and business affairs at the State Department from 2014 to 2016, guiding the Department’s institutional strengthening efforts as its most senior career diplomat handling economic affairs.

Ambassador Tong also served as deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo from 2011 to 2014, where he played a key role in setting the stage for Japan’s entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership and supporting Japan’s recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. In 2013, he received the Cordell Hull Award for Economic Achievement by Senior Officers for his outstanding success in advancing U.S. economic interests by reducing trade barriers, increasing market access for U.S. products, and enhancing international cooperation across the Asia-Pacific region.

Ambassador Tong also served as ambassador for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2011, leading the U.S. chairmanship of the organization during one of the most productive periods for APEC. As director of Korean affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, he played a leadership role in negotiations with North Korea as part of the Six-Party Talks. He was one of the original architects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement during the Bush and Obama administrations, including while serving as director for Asian economic affairs at the National Security Council from 2006 to 2008. Earlier in his career, Ambassador Tong served as economic minister-counselor in Seoul, counselor for environment, science and health at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, deputy treasury attaché in Tokyo, and as an economic officer in Manila.

Ambassador Tong holds a B.A. from the Woodrow School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and studied economics at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute.

Professor Christine Loh, SBS, JP, OBE, Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, is Chief Development Strategist at the Institute for the Environment, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), engaging in teaching and research. Her teaching experience includes a course on Non-Market Risks at the Anderson School of Management, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) from 2018-22. She is Visiting Scholar at the Anderson School of Management’s Center for Global Management (2023-24).

She was Under Secretary for the Environment in the HKSAR Government (2012-17). Between April 2019 and March 2020, she was the Special Consultant to the Office of the Chief Executive of the HKSAR Government on the ecological civilization aspects of the Greater Bay Area Outline Development Plan. She has also been a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council. Loh has been active in public policy and politics since the 1980s. She founded and was the CEO of the non-profit think tank, Civic Exchange (2000-12), and helped to establish several charitable foundations, and non-profit organizations in Hong Kong related to the environment, equal opportunity, and arts and culture. Professor Loh is a published author of books and many academic and popular works.

Professor Loh is currently a board member of CDP Worldwide, Global Maritime Forum, New Forests Pty Ltd, and Towngas Smart Energy Company Limited. She holds an English law degree from the University of Hull, England, and a Master of Law degree in Chinese and Comparative Law from the City University of Hong Kong. She has been awarded the degree of Doctor of Law, honoris causa, by the University of Hull in 2001, and Doctor of Science, honoris causa by the University of Exeter in 2016.
 

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The views and opinions expressed are those of the speakers and participants and, unless expressly stated to the contrary, do not reflect the opinion, position or official policy of Asia Society Hong Kong, its members, or its committees. Asia Society Hong Kong does not endorse or approve, and assumes no responsibility for the content of the information presented.