Sanctioned Lawmakers Condemn UK’s 1st Ministerial Visit to Hong Kong Since 2018

Former Conservative Party leader, MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith, is pictured speaking at a rally commemorating the two-year anniversary of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement in London, England on June 12, 2021. Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times

The British government has come under renewed criticism from lawmakers as a government minister is visiting Hong Kong this week for the first time since 2018.

A number of parliamentarians who have been sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) condemned the government for sending the minister for trade talks, with former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith saying the government was set to “prostrate” itself before the Chinese regime.

The visit comes after lawmakers lambasted the government for inviting Chinese deputy leader Han Zheng—who was in charge of Hong Kong affairs during the CCP’s supression of the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong—to the coronation of King Charles III.

Business and Trade Minister Lord Dominic Johnson of Lainston commenced a two-day trip to Hong Kong on Monday to woo investors and renew trade ties.

Johnson’s Twitter feed showed that he has met with Christopher Hui, the region’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, to discuss the “ongoing work to remove market barriers and increase UK-Hong Kong trade.”

Johnson also met with Victor Li and Canning Fok, executive directors of CK Hutchinson, toured the Cyberport in southern Hong Kong, attended an investment talk hosted by Boston Consulting Group, and spoke to other British business leaders in Hong Kong.

Speaking to TalkTV on Tuesday, Duncan Smith said he found the visit “appalling.”

“I’m absolutely astonished that a British minister could be sent to Hong Kong,” he said. “Bear in mind that the Chinese government trashed the agreement, the Sino-British agreement, an international treaty, which guaranteed certain rights for the people of Hong Kong.

“Since then it’s imposed the [National] Security Law, it’s arrested peaceful democracy campaigners,” he said.

“They’ve trumped up charges ... [against Apple Daily owner and journalist] Jimmy Lai. He is now languishing in prison. He’s in his 70s, he is a British citizen, a British passport holder. The British government has absolutely failed to publicly state that he is a British citizen with a British passport,” he added.

Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai is escorted to a prison van before appearing in court in Hong Kong, on Dec. 12, 2020. Kin Cheung/AP Photo

Lai, the founder of Apple Daily and the Next Media group, was arrested in 2020 and charged under the National Security Law with colluding with foreign powers. The Hong Kong National Security Bureau also shut down all of the operations of Lai’s newsgroup and froze his assets in 2021.

On a separate charge, Jimmy Lai was found guilty of “lease fraud” for breaching a condition in Apple Daily’s rental contract, and given a sentence of almost six years in prison.

Lai’s son Sebastien—who has been lobbying the British government to secure Lai’s release—and Lai’s British lawyers have also been threatened with extraterritorial prosecution under the National Security Law, one of the lawyers revealed last month.

Duncan Smith said Johnson’s trip was “appalling” after Chinese leader Xi Jinping sent “the man that was responsible for the crackdown in Hong Kong” to the coronation on his behalf.

“I think that was spitting in our faces, frankly, and I just don’t understand why we are sending a minister to, particularly, Hong Kong, when we know all that’s going on, with ... slave labour being used in China, when you’ve got genocide taking place in Xinjiang. It’s a shocker really.”

Duncan Smith also told Politico that the Chinese regime has “trashed and humiliated” the UK, asking, “Why is it that we are about to prostrate ourselves in front of a government that treats us like dirt?”

Conservative MP Tim Loughton told the publication that the visit is “not a good look,” noting that it followed “hard on the heels of the architect of suppression of the people of Hong Kong being feted at the coronation.”

Riot police deploy pepper spray toward journalists on the 23rd anniversary of the city's handover from Britain to China as protesters gathered for a rally against the new National Security Law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. Dale De La Rey/AFP via Getty Images

Crossbench peer Lord David Alton of Liverpool accused the British government in a Twitter post of “trying to have your cake and eat it.

“How can you legitimately seek to boost trade with a country that breaks international treaties, imprisons lawmakers & democracy advocates, uses slave labour, and commits genocide?” he asked.

“How do you ’reset' a relationship [with] those who destroy democracy in Hong Kong, threaten Taiwan [and] are accused of genocide. Or doesn’t that matter to the ⁦[UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office]?” the peer asked in another Twitter post.

In an article published in the South China Morning Post, Johnson defended his visit, saying the UK will not duck its “historic responsibilities” to the people of Hong Kong.

“As a co-signatory to the Joint Declaration, we will continue to stand up for the people of Hong Kong, to call out the violation of their freedoms, and to hold China to their international obligations,” he wrote.

He also referred to the recent update to the UK’s defence and foreign policy strategy, saying the government will “engage robustly and constructively with China and Hong Kong where our interests converge,” and that his visit is “an opportune time” to reinforce the UK’s “willingness to engage.”

According to a fact sheet published by the British government (pdf), trade between the UK and Hong Kong was worth £28.5 billion in 2022, including £18.2 billion of British exports and £10.2 billion of imports to the UK.

In 2021, investments between the two jurisdictions were worth almost £94 billion. British investors invested around £77.6 billion in Hong Kong, while £16.3 billion of foreign investment into the UK came from Hong Kong.

Johnson said he would use the trip to capitalise on Hong Kong’s commercial success and further the UK’s investment relationship with the territory.

But he also acknowledged that the former British colony’s commercial success was rooted in “its ‘high degree of autonomy’, as outlined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration,” and that the rights and freedoms in Hong Kong “have been undermined.”

Following Beijing’s imposition of the national security law, former British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab declared that it was “a clear breach of the legally binding Sino-British Joint Declaration.”

The UK has also opened a bespoke visa route for holders of British National (Overseas) status in Hong Kong, allowing them to resettle in the UK.