Britain to ditch Hong Kong treaty as China vows to take revenge
BRITAIN is poised to rip up its extradition treaty with Hong Kong today amid worsening diplomatic relations with China.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab hinted that the Government will follow Canada and Australia in suspending its treaty with the former British colony.
The move marks a new low in relations between Britain and China that has seen tech firm Huawei banned from the UK’s 5G network and concern over human rights abuses regarding China’s Uighur Muslims.
China’s ambassador Liu Xiaoming said on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show that his government would not hesitate to retaliate.
He condemned the idea of ripping up the Hong Kong extradition treaty and imposing sanctions as totally wrong.
Measures
He said: “If the UK Government goes that far, to impose sanctions on any individuals in China, China will certainly make a resolute response to it. You’ve seen what happened between China and the US – they sanction Chinese officials, we sanction their officers.”
Meanwhile, Chinese social media giant TikTok has now suspended plans to open a global HQ in London, it was revealed yesterday.
Mr Raab is expected to make an announcement regarding the treaty in the Commons today.
He told Marr that the Government had completed a review into its extradition arrangements and “a range of other measures that we might wish to take”. Home Secretary Priti Patel and a growing number of Conservative MPs are understood to back the move. Ministers are also looking at imposing so-called Magnitsky sanctions on Chinese organisations and individuals accused of human rights abuses. These could include travel bans and the freezing of assets, with sanctions already imposed earlier this month on Russian, Burmese, North Korean and Saudi nationals. Western governments are suspending extradition treaties with Hong Kong because they no longer have confidence in its judicial independence. It has come after China passed a law effectively ending Hong Kong’s autonomy.
Mr Liu also suggested that UK policy was now being directed by the White House.
He said: “I do not want to see this tit for tat between China and the US happen in China and UK relations.
“I think the UK should have its own independent foreign policy, rather than dance to the tune of Americans like what happened to Huawei.”
Mr Liu said the Huawei decision was “very bad” and meant the UK had “missed the opportunity to be a leading country – we are still evaluating the consequences”.
During his interview Mr Liu was confronted with video footage, widely circulated online in recent days, which experts believe shows Uighur people in China being detained and forced on to a train to be taken away.
On claims of human rights abuses over the Uighur community he said: “Let me tell you this: The so-called Western intelligence keep making this false accusation against China.”