BRITAIN RISKS CHINA FURY
BRITAIN yesterday suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and slapped an arms embargo on the territory as Boris Johnson vowed to get ‘tough’ on China.
The measures – a response to China’s controversial national security law for Hong Kong – came despite Beijing threatening ‘resolute reaction’ and warning the UK against going further down the ‘wrong path’.
amid the diplomatic firestorm, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Britain last night. He will meet the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today, with the subject of China expected to dominate the discussions.
US sources said they will discuss ways to ‘deal with’ Beijing, including its ‘aggression’ in the South China Sea. They will also look at alternatives to Chinese telecoms giant Huawei after Britain banned the firm from its 5G networks, and the ways in which the UK and US ‘can develop networks with trusted vendors’.
Mr Raab told MPs yesterday the extradition treaty with Hong Kong was being suspended ‘immediately and indefinitely’ because of concerns that the new national security law could allow cases to be transferred to mainland China.
The extradition treaty means that, if someone in Hong Kong is suspected of a crime in the UK, the British authorities can ask Hong Kong to hand them over to face justice – and vice versa.
The UK fears the arrangement – which has been in place for more than 30 years – could see anyone it extradites to Hong Kong being sent on to China. an arms embargo with China that has been in place since 1989 will also be extended to Hong Kong, Mr Raab said.
He said it was a ‘reasonable and proportionate’ response to the new law, adding: ‘The extension of this embargo will mean there will be no exports from the UK to Hong Kong of potentially lethal weapons, their components or ammunition.
‘It will also mean a ban on the export of any equipment not already banned which might be used for internal repression such as shackles, intercept equipment, firearms and smoke grenades.’
The Foreign Secretary said Beijing’s national security law had ‘significantly changed key assumptions’.
The law gives mainland Chinese authori ties ‘the ability to assume jurisdiction over certain cases and to try those cases in mainland Chinese courts’.
Mr Raab’s actions came after Mr Johnson promised a ‘tough’ but ‘calibrated’ response to Beijing. The Prime Minister said: ‘I’m not going to be pushed into a position of becoming a knee-jerk Sino-phobe on every issue, somebody who is automatically antiChina. But we do have serious concerns.
‘we’ve got to have a calibrated approach. we’re going to be tough on some things, but we’re going to continue to engage.’ The UK had already announced that holders of British national (Overseas) passports in Hong Kong will be given extended rights to come to the UK and be put on a path to citizenship. Home Secretary Priti Patel will set out further details this week.
Mr Raab also told MPs the Government had ‘grave concerns’ about ‘gross human rights abuses’ against the Uighur Muslim minority group in China’s Xinjiang region.
Labour foreign spokesman Lisa nandy suggested the Government could take steps to bar Communist Party of China officials from the UK and called for a ‘new era’ in terms of the UK’s relationship with China.
Earlier in the day, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman wang wenbin warned that Britain was heading down ‘a wrong path’ and vowed ‘resolute reaction’. He told a press briefing that Beijing would ‘firmly counter’ any interference in its internal affairs and rejected suggestions it was mistreating minorities in Xinjiang as ‘slander’.
‘we urge the UK not to go further down this wrong path, in order to avoid further damage to China-UK relations,’ he said. ‘China will make resolute reaction to actions that interfere in China’s internal affairs.’
The Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, has criticised the Government’s approach. He denounced Britain for ‘dancing to the tune’ of the US and accused western countries of trying to foment a ‘new cold war’ with China.
But backbench Tories have called on Mr Johnson to take a tougher stance on China. Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee, told Radio 4’s westminster Hour that Britain had been duped over China and it was time to say ‘enough is enough’.
‘We have serious concerns’