Very tetchy!!
The Hong Kong authorities have expanded the use of the national security law “beyond genuine national security concerns,” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said in a regular report on the state of the city, expressing disappointment over Beijing’s “ongoing state of non-compliance” with an agreement signed by China and Britain in 1984.
The Hong Kong government expressed its “strong” disapproval of the report, which was published by the UK government on Monday, saying it “firmly rejected the groundless attacks, slanders and smears against the HKSAR” contained in the document.
Published every six months, the report depicts changes in different sectors, including the legal and electoral systems, with the latest covering events from January 1 to June 30.
“This newly expanded report clearly evidences how China is breaking its promises,” Cleverly wrote, referring to commitments laid out in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and saying Hong Kong’s legal system was “at a critical juncture”.
Cleverly continued: “Hong Kong’s courts remain independent, but they are having to adjudicate on an opaque NSL that places the authority of the Chief Executive on security matters above that of their own.”
“Everyone tried so far under the NSL has been found guilty,” Cleverly also said in the report, adding that “[t]he targeted persecution of people with dissenting views persists, including overseas.”
Read more at Hong Kong Free Press
