Hong Kong scaled back a proposed extradition law amid concerns by opposition lawmakers and Western governments that the legislation could put people at risk of being sent to China and further erode the territory’s autonomy.
The government would remove nine categories, including bankruptcy, securities and futures, and intellectual property, from the proposed extradition law, Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee (李家超) told reporters on Tuesday.
The proposed law would still include offenses such as murder, polygamy and robbery that would be eligible for at least a three-year jail sentence under Hong Kong law.
Photo: Reuters
The proposed law would allow for easier transfer of fugitives to Taiwan, Macau, China or any jurisdiction with which Hong Kong does not have an extradition agreement.
It was spurred by the high-profile murder last year of a Hong Kong resident while she was vacationing in Taiwan with her boyfriend, who Taiwanese authorities tried to prosecute for her death.
The man, who subsequently returned to Hong Kong, has not been sent back to Taiwan to face charges as Hong Kong’s fugitive law does not apply there, Hong Kong authorities have said.
“The purpose of the amendment is to deal with a murder case in Taiwan and to fill in the system’s deficiencies, so as to prevent Hong Kong from becoming a hiding place for criminals and have criminals receive legal sanctions,” Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥), who has defended the law, said on Tuesday.
The Hong Kong government could not ignore the Taiwanese case, Lam said, adding that the huge amount of work is “driven by empathy and sympathy.”
Although officials would not submit the amended law until Wednesday next week, it has already stoked fears that it could make Hong Kong more susceptible to Beijing’s political demands — and raised questions about whether people extradited to Hong Kong would face a greater risk of being handed over to China.
A delegation of US politicians to Hong Kong earlier this month highlighted the proposed law as a major challenge to the “one country, two systems” principle under which Hong Kong was handed back to Chinese rule in 1997.
Their report also cited the disqualification of lawmakers from the Hong Kong Legislative Council and the refusal to renew a visa for a Financial Times editor last year as contributing to concerns about Hong Kong’s sovereignty, as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government in Beijing expands its campaign of influence in the territory.
The US last week said that Hong Kong maintains a sufficient — although diminished — degree of autonomy under the “one country, two systems” model to justify continued special treatment, a US consulate spokesperson said in Hong Kong on Friday last week.
“This passage of the rendition-extradition mechanism will be like a Sword of Damocles hanging over Hong Kong,” said Willy Lam (林和立), a political analyst at the Chinese University in Hong Kong.
“It is highly conceivable that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] leadership might place a demand on Carrie Lam to extradite political prisoners or prisoners of conscience deemed to be ‘criminals’ under the PRC [People’s Republic of China] legal system,” he said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS