The United Kingdom’s foreign minister revealed on Thursday that he had raised the case of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who holds a British passport and faces collusion charges in Hong Kong, with China’s vice-president earlier this month.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly reiterated his accusation that city authorities had used the Beijing-imposed national security legislation and the sedition law to “target prominent pro-democracy figures, journalists and politicians in an effort to silence and discredit them” in Britain’s latest six-monthly parliamentary report on Hong Kong.

“Detained British dual national Jimmy Lai is one such figure. I raised his case with Chinese vice-President Han Zheng earlier this month, and we have raised it at the highest levels with the Hong Kong authorities,” Cleverly said.

In response, the Hong Kong government issued a strongly worded statement on Thursday night, saying it “strongly disapproved” of the report and urged Britain to stop interfering in the city’s matters.

Cleverly said Lai, founder of the now-closed Apple Daily newspaper, along with 47 opposition activists charged with subversion over an unofficial primary, among others, would be put on trial under the security law this year.

“Many of these individuals have been held on remand without bail for over two years. Thousands who were arrested during the protests in 2019 are still waiting to learn if they will face trial,” he said.

Cleverly was urged by several groups, including the London-based Hong Kong Watch, to raise Lai’s case with Han during the vice-president’s visit to London to attend King Charles’ coronation earlier this month.

Lai is to stand trial in September without a jury on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. The High Court will rule next Monday on whether the national security case will be dropped in response to arguments from Lai’s lawyers over alleged bias towards his conviction.

Cleverly said China remained in “an ongoing state of non-compliance” with the Sino-British Joint Declaration in the latest report, referring to the deal signed in 1984 between London and Beijing which set out the terms of the city’s 1997 return to Chinese rule.

“We have stood with our partners in condemning the steady erosion of civil and political rights and Hong Kong’s autonomy. China should uphold all its international commitments, including the Joint Declaration,” he said.

Much of the report was dedicated to the arrest and jailing of opposition members, ongoing national security cases and the increasing use of the colonial-era sedition law, which it said had led to the arrest or conviction of activists, civil servants and ordinary citizens, mostly for non-violent free speech.

“Acts such as criticising judges during court hearings and publishing anti-government content online overseas were ruled seditious. High profile pro-democracy figures, including Jimmy Lai and former pan-democratic politicians, were jailed for non-[national security law] offences,” it said.

“Freedom of the press came under increasing pressure. Prosecutions against journalists continued. A number of them remained in custody awaiting sentence or facing trial.”

The report claimed that the national security legislation and the sedition law continued to damage the city’s way of life, adding that the British government would “lead efforts to scrutinise the Chinese government’s actions” alongside its international partners.

Although the report covered the period between July and December last year, Cleverly noted the recent proposed changes to the city’s district councils, which would slash the number of directly elected seats. He also pointed to the recent amendment to the Legal Practitioners Ordinance, which would give the city leader the final say on involvement of overseas lawyers in national security cases.

“Powers once vested in the judiciary have transferred to the chief executive. Those facing national security charges no longer have the right to challenge government decisions in the courts,” he wrote.

Cleverly last month laid down London’s multifaceted approach to China by seeking a constructive relationship while engaging with Beijing on its “authoritarianism” where necessary.

The Hong Kong government late on Thursday hit back at London, saying it “vehemently refuted, strongly disapproved and firmly rejected the slandering remarks and ill-intentioned political attacks” on the city in the UK report.

“The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government strongly urges the United Kingdom to once again follow international law and the basic principles of international relations and immediately stop intervening in Hong Kong affairs, which are the internal affairs of China,” it said in a statement.

The latest statistics showed that 9,411 Hongkongers applied for the British National (Overseas) visa scheme, London’s bespoke migration pathway, between January and March this year. The scheme was introduced on January 31, 2021, in the wake of the imposition of the national security law.

A total of 8,222 people were granted the visa from October to December last year.

As of March, up to 172,500 applications had been logged since the BN(O) visa scheme’s introduction.

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3221848/hong-kong-national-security-law-uk-foreign-minister-says-jimmy-lai-case-raised-chinas-vice-president

Category: Hong Kong