On Friday (May 26), Hong Kong government dismissed a request from the British government to repeal a national security statute imposed by China. Britain argued that the statute had been utilized to target, “silence,” and “discredit” pro-democracy opposition activists.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly highlighted in his country’s most recent semi-annual report on Hong Kong that during a UN hearing in February, he raised concerns about the utilization of the security law by Hong Kong authorities to suppress opposition figures, resulting in the imprisonment or forced exile of many of them.
They urged Beijing to follow the recommendations in a report from the independent UN Human Rights Council. This was from last July, including “removing the National Security Law” that Beijing imposed on the former British colony in 2020.
Hong Kong’s authorities said in a statement that they “vehemently refuted, strongly disapproved and firmly rejected the slandering remarks and ill-intentioned political attacks”. A Hong Kong government spokesman said Britain should “stop interfering in Hong Kong matters. Which are purely China’s internal affairs”.
The spokesman said Hong Kong’s security law had brought stability after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019. In addition he said that this was while Hong Kong’s laws guaranteed certain individual rights, “such rights and freedoms are not absolute” when it comes to safeguarding national security.
Britain referred in its report to the erosion of Hong Kong’s rule of law, including transferring “powers once vested in the judiciary” to Hong Kong’s pro-China leader, and the inability of those facing national security charges to challenge government decisions in the courts.
“We have stood with our partners in condemning the steady erosion of civil and political rights and Hong Kong’s autonomy,” Cleverly wrote in a foreword to the report.