Hong Kong: Politics and Government

(asked on 12th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 5 May (HL3427), what urgent representations they will make to the government of Hong Kong about any breach of Article 22 of the Basic Law arising from the arrest of pro-democracy leaders and lawmakers; and what plans they have, as part of their role as a co-signatory to the Sino-British Joint Declaration, to request that the trials of those arrested do not proceed.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 28th May 2020

As set out in my Written Answer on 5 May (HL3427), we are concerned by the arrests of a number of pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong and are following these cases closely. Senior Officials have raised our concern about the arrests with the authorities in Hong Kong, Beijing and with the Chinese Embassy in London; and we will continue to make our views clear both publicly and privately.

Article 22 of the basic law states that "No department of the Central People's Government [,,,,] may interfere in the affairs which the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region administers on its own in accordance with this law". As co-signatory of the Joint Declaration, we expect the mainland Chinese authorities to respect Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and the rights and freedoms provided for in that legally binding treaty.

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