Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Chinese counterpart on the effect of national security legislation on human rights in Hong Kong.

As the Foreign Secretary said on 1 July 2020, the National Security Law (NSL) constitutes a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. It violates the high degree of autonomy of executive and legislative powers and independent judicial authority, provided for in the Joint Declaration. The legislation also contains a slew of measures that directly threaten the freedoms and rights protected by the Joint Declaration.

The Foreign Secretary has raised this issue with his counterpart, Chinese State Councillor and Minister for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi. Additionally, the Permanent Under Secretary of the FCO summoned the Chinese Ambassador on 1 July 2020 to register our deep concerns about the NSL. We will continue to raise our concerns with the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities.