UK suspends extradition treaty with Hong Kong "immediately and indefinitely"

In a drastic measure over Hong Kong’s new security legislation, the UK has suspended the extradition treaty with Hong Kong "immediately and indefinitely", UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab told the House of Commons in a live-streamed conference. Raab said that the UK wants a "positive relationship" with China but "will be clear where we disagree". 

"The imposition of this new security legislation has significantly changed key assumptions underpinning our extradition treaty arrangements with Hong Kong,” the UK foreign minister said. Further, he emphasized that he has “consulted with the Home Secretary, the Justice Secretary, and the Attorney General and the Government” to take the decision. He stressed that the UK will not reactivate the extradition arrangements unless there were “robust safeguards which are able to prevent extradition from the UK being misused under the new national security legislation.” 

Suspension of the Extradition treaty implies that Hong Kong could no longer have a convict or a national accused of a crime in the UK to be sent back to his or her homeland country. While China’s Foreign Ministry had warned the UK prior to the announcement, Raab made clear that the UK was no longer “business as usual” with China amid heightened tensions. Citing UK’s support to the United States, Australia and Canada, Raab on July 20 told a state broadcaster that the UK was working “with our international partners to see what other offers they will make to the people of Hong Kong and I've also said that we'd review a whole range of other considerations,” a news agency reported.  

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Breach of Sino-British Joint Declaration

UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has been critical of China's decision to impose the controversial security law in Hong Kong and accused People’s Republic of breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in which the UK transferred the control of Hong Kong to China in 1997, as per a report. However, China's ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, called UK’s measures as “gross interference” in China’s internal affairs and was quoted saying that the UK was “dancing to the tune” of the US.  

Earlier this month, Canada suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong following China’s security law on the territory. In a sweeping measure, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly bypassed Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and scrapped the treaty with no prior public consultation. "After studying the legislation and its impact, Canada will treat exports of sensitive goods to Hong Kong in the same way as those destined for mainland China," Trudeau said, in a live-streamed address from an Outaouais food bank. 

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