Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have reached a conclusion on whether China's breaches of the Sino-British Joint Declaration constitute a material breach within the meaning of Article 60(3) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties; and if they concluded that no material breach occurred, what reasons informed that conclusion.

The UK has been clear that, since March 2021 and following Beijing's imposition of the National Security Law on Hong Kong, China has been in an ongoing state of non-compliance with the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The Joint Declaration is a legally binding, UN-registered agreement that remains in force, and we continue to monitor its implementation through our Six-Monthly Reports on Hong Kong. We have consistently called on China to honour the commitments it made to the people of Hong Kong.