British Minister addresses human rights and trade with Hong Kong

A british Secretary of State for the Indo-Pacific region, Rosie Winterton, on an official visit to Hong Kong, addressed the situation of Jimmy Lai, the arrested media magnate with local authorities this Friday.

Winterton met in the former British colony with the commissioner of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the city, Cui Jianchun, as well as senior officials of the Hong Kong Executive, on the first official mission of the diplomat to the region since taking office, focusing on the objectives of strengthening trade relations and defending human rights.

The London diplomatic representative conveyed the European Government's concern for the rewind of freedoms in the territory, as well as visited Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park.

This visit to this important strategic technological park aims to strengthen scientific cooperation and the development of business opportunities in the so-called Greater Bay region, an economic integration megaproject promoted by Beijing, which links Hong Kong and Macao to nine other cities in the Chinese province of Canton.

The Secretary of State's trip to Hong Kong takes place in the context of a gradual thawing of bilateral relations between Beijing and London, which have deteriorated in recent years due to political repression in the special administrative region.

This approach received a decisive boost following the visit to the Chinese capital of former Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer and, more recently, through a telephone conversation between Chinese President Xi Jinping and current British Executive Chief Andy Burnham.

During the working sessions, Winterton stressed that Hong Kong continues to be among the UK's top twenty trading partners and maintains the status of international financial centre of reference.

It also argued that a constructive economic dialogue is not incompatible with maintaining a frank dialogue on the most complex issues on the bilateral agenda.

In this regard, he reiterated his official British position with regard to Jimmy Lai, a 78-year-old British citizen and founder of the pro-democratic orientation paper Apple Daily, which was closed.

Lai was found guilty last February of collusion with foreign forces, among other crimes typified in the National Security Act of the territory, and sentenced to 20 years in prison, the harshest sentence applied so far under the law, imposed by Beijing in 2020.

The secretary's Asian tour coincides with the recent presentation to the Westminster Parliament of the 59th half-yearly Hong Kong report, signed by British Foreign Minister Ed Miliband.

The document denounces that China continues to fail to comply with the terms of the joint Sino-British Declaration of 1984, an international treaty which guaranteed by 2047 the high degree of autonomy and the system of rights, freedoms and guarantees of the former British colony.

Both Beijing and the Hong Kong authorities categorically rejected the conclusions of this report, classifying them as “an intolerable interference in their internal affairs”.