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G-7, EU urge China to reconsider Hong Kong security law
The legally-binding declaration set out arrangements for the former British colony after its handover to China in 1997.
Members of G-7 and the European Union on Thursday joined the United Kingdom’s earlier call to “strongly urge” China to reconsider its decision to impose a national security law in Hong Kong that, according to them, violates the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984.
The legally-binding declaration set out arrangements for the former British colony after its handover to China in 1997. The new China law also goes against Hong Kong Basic Law, G-7’s foreign ministers and the high representative of the EU said in a statement.
The Boris Johnson government has responded strongly to Beijing’s move by announcing that if the law seen to curtail rights of Hong Kong citizens were implemented, it would offer holders of British National (Overseas) statue there a path to British citizenship.
The statement said: “The proposed national security law would risk seriously undermining the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ principle and the territory’s high degree of autonomy. It would jeopardize the system which has allowed Hong Kong to flourish and made it a success over many years”.
“We are also extremely concerned that this action would curtail and threaten the fundamental rights and freedoms of all the population protected by the rule of law and the existence of an independent justice system”, it added.
Britain’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab said that statement showed the strength of international concern over the law. The G7 is calling on China to adhere to its legally binding international commitments and respect the autonomy and the freedom of the people of Hong Kong, he added.
The statement was issued by the foreign ministers of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the high representative of the EU.
