UK officials push to tear up Hong Kong extradition arrangement

Top UK officials have pushed the Government to rip up the existing extradition arrangement with Hong Kong following the introduction of China’s draconian new national security law in the territory. 

Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Baroness Helena Kennedy, a Labour member of the House of Lords, spoke alongside parliamentarians across the globe to call for an end to extradition treaties with the former British colony. 

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) has campaigned against continuing the extradition treaties, the imposition of the new law in Hong Kong as well as the plight of the Uyghur people and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. 

Pic credit: Unsplash/ @shanerounce

A spokesman for the IPAC told Democracy Yellow: “Hong Kong’s repressive new national security law puts us all at risk.

“According to the Hong Kong courts, people who criticise China in the UK are guilty of a crime within the territory.

“In these circumstances we simply can’t put our citizens at risk by agreeing to extradite them to Hong Kong to face potentially outrageous charges.” 

It comes as former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith tabled two amendments to legislation going through the House of Commons that would stop the extradition of suspects in the UK to Hong Kong. 

The amendments were tabled after China imposed the national security law in Hong Kong following protests in the city for democracy, freedom and a continuation of the city’s unique status within the one-party-controlled nation. 

Beijing’s imposed law sets out to charge Hong Kong people with secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign entities with potential life sentences. 

Pic credit Unsplash/ @yulokchan

Just hours after the law was introduced on June 30, hundreds of protestors were arrested by Hong Kong police and already the first person charged under the law has appeared in court. 

Tong Ying-kit, 23, was charged with “incitement to secession” and “terrorist activities” and is now being remanded in custody until October after he was denied bail.

The arrests have led officials in various questions to fear the law could be applied to Hong Kong people living in nations that have extradition treaties with the territory. 

Canada has already suspended its arrangement with Hong Kong and several other countries are now considering doing the same. 

A Home Office spokeswoman said it would not comment on specific arrangements. 

The Labour Party and China’s Ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming have been approached for comment.