Britain on Monday said it would change its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in response to China’s imposition of a new security law on the territory.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is expected to announce the suspension of the treaty and will update the parliament in due course.
“There is a balance here. I’m not going to be pushed into a position of becoming a knee-jerk Sinophobe on every issue, somebody who is automatically anti-China.
“But we do have serious concerns concerning restrictions in Hong Kong and human rights abuses in China, including the treatment of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority in the far western Xinjiang region,” he said.
The prime minister said Raab would set out how Britain would change its extradition arrangements to reflect its concerns about happenings with the security law in Hong Kong.
However, Australia and Canada had earlier suspended their extradition agreements with Hong Kong amid similar concerns about China’s ruling Communist Party imposing the national security law.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to arrive in Britain and discuss Hong Kong and China with Raab and Johnson.
According to Johnson, Britain will not completely abandon its policy of engagement with China.
“You have got to have a calibrated response and we are going to be tough on some things but also going to continue to engage,” he said.
AFP
