A routine UK government report on Hong Kong that described the city as being on a “negative trajectory” has been met with condemnation from authorities over what they called “wanton slander and political attacks.”
The latest six-monthly report, published on Monday, details political, judicial and constitutional developments in Hong Kong from July through December 2023. According to the UK government, the reports reflect a “commitment to the faithful implementation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration,” a treaty between the UK and China that guaranteed Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy after it was handed over from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
The period in question sawnational security police issue arrest warrants for 13 overseas activists and offer HK$1 million for information that lead to their arrest or prosecution. “Many of these individuals now live in the UK,” wrote UK foreign secretary David Cameron in the report.
“We will not tolerate any attempt by any foreign power to intimidate, harass, or harm individuals in the United Kingdom,” Cameron wrote, adding that the security law had “no authority” in the UK and that the country had no active extradition agreement with Hong Kong or mainland China.
“I want to assure our valued Hong Kong community in the United Kingdom: you are safe here,” he wrote.
After Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020, the UK introduced an immigration route for Hongkongers who held British National (Overseas) passports. As of last September, 184,700 such visas had been granted.
The report also covered the opening of the landmark trial of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 76, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and one charge of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials. Describing Beijing’s security law, under which Lai has been charged, as in “breach” of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the report said its enactment had seen dissent “criminalised” and left civil society “marginalised.”
“It is in this context… I called for the Hong Kong authorities to end their prosecution, release Jimmy Lai, and for China to repeal the National Security Law,” Cameron wrote, referring toa statement he issued ahead of the trial last December.
Regarding constitutional changes, the report focused largely on December’s District Council elections, the first since major electoral changes were implemented. The overhaul reduced the number of seats elected by popular vote from 452 to 88, and effectively barred opposition candidates from running.
According to the UK report, “changes to the electoral system in Hong Kong since 2021 mean that the people of Hong Kong have no meaningful choice in their elected representatives, limiting the ability of the Legislative and District Councils to hold the Executive to account.”
While it did not fall within the period covered by the report, Cameron in the foreword discussed the recent enactment of new security legislation in the city.
“This law, rushed through the legislative process, is likely incompatible with international human rights law,” he wrote, adding that he expected it to “have a negative impact on Hong Kong people’s ability to exercise their rights and freedoms.”
“Although economic, monetary and trade systems remain distinct and dynamic, recent developments are forging a negative trajectory,” the report summarised.
‘Utterly untrue’
In a lengthy statement issued in the early hours of Tuesday, the Hong Kong government said it “strongly disapproved of and rejected the untruthful remarks, slanders and smears… and rejects the wanton slander and political attacks in the UK’s so-called six-monthly report.”
Without mentioning Lai, a government spokesperson said the “suggestion that certain individuals or organisations should be immune from legal consequences for their illegal acts, including those involving collusion with foreign or external forces, is no different from advocating a special pass to break the law, and this totally runs contrary to the spirit of the rule of law.”
The spokesperson added that it was “extremely inappropriate for the UK to make unwarranted comments on criminal trials which are ongoing in the HKSAR courts.” They also defended the extraterritorial effect of the national security law, saying it “fully aligns with the principles of international law.”
On the District Council election, which saw a record-low turnout of 27.5 per cent, the spokesperson said remarks made in the report were “utterly untrue.”
“No one country or region in the world will ever allow political power to fall into the hands of forces or individuals who do not love, or even sell out or betray, their own country,” they said, adding that it was a “high-quality election conducted in a fair, just, clean, safe and orderly manner.”
“The core essence of the Sino-British Joint Declaration is about China’s resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong,” the spokesperson said. “It did not authorise the UK to interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs after its return to the motherland.”
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