UK says China's security legislation is serious violation of Hong Kong treaty
02 July, 2020
The United Kingdom said China's imposition of a security law on Hong Kong was a "clear and considerable" violation of the 1984 Joint Declaration and that London would offer around 3 million residents of the ex - colony a way to British citizenship.
Hong Kong police on Wednesday (Jul 1) fired water cannon and tear gas and arrested a lot more than 300 persons as protesters took to the streets on defiance of sweeping security legislation introduced by China that they state is targeted at snuffing out dissent.
"The enactment and imposition of the national security law constitute a clear and serious breach of the Sino-Uk Joint Declaration," Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament on Wednesday.
Johnson said Britain would the stand by position its pledge to provide Uk National Overseas (BNO) passport-holders found in Hong Kong a way to British citizenship, permitting them to settle in the united kingdom.
Almost 3 million Hong Kong residents meet the criteria for the passport. There have been 349,881 holders of the passports by February.
Hong Kong's autonomy was guaranteed beneath the "one country, several systems" agreement enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed at that time Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Primary Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Hong Kong was handed back to China on Jul 1, 1997, after a lot more than 150 years of Uk guideline - imposed after Britain defeated China in the First Opium Battle. China had under no circumstances recognised the "unequal treaties" allowing Britain's rule of Hong Kong island, the Kowloon peninsula and afterwards its lease of the rural New Territories.
HONG KONG ROW
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Britain had carefully assessed China's national security legislation because it was published late in Tuesday.
"It constitutes a distinct violation of the autonomy of Hong Kong, and a direct threat to the freedoms of its persons, and for that reason I'm afraid to state it is a obvious and serious violation of the Joint Declaration treaty between your UK and China," Raab told Reuters and the BBC.
Authorities found in Beijing and Hong Kong experience repeatedly said the legislation is targeted at a handful of "troublemakers" and can not influence rights and freedoms, nor investor interests.
Raab said he'd lay out shortly the action Britain would take with its international partners.
"China, through this national security legislation, isn't living up to its guarantees to the persons of Hong Kong," Raab said. "We will surpass our promises."
Asked about how precisely the West should manage Chinese President Xi Jinping, Raab said: "Definitely, China is a respected person in the international community. And it is precisely as a result of that, that people expect it to surpass its intercontinental obligations and its own international responsibilities.
"For trust in China's potential to do this, today possesses been a big step backwards."
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