A Hong Kong independence advocate on Tuesday said that proposed amendments to the territory’s legal system that would allow captured fugitives to be sent to China could deal a fatal blow to the territory’s judicial independence.
Speaking on the 30th anniversary of China’s military crackdown on student-led democracy protests in and around Tiananmen Square, Ray Wong (黃台仰) urged democratic countries to up the pressure on the Chinese government to respect human rights.
“This law is the final nail in the coffin,” Wong, who was granted refugee status in Germany, told Reuters TV in Berlin. “Because if this law is passed, the legal system in Hong Kong will be destroyed. Hong Kong will be just another city in China.”
Photo: AP
Calls to the Chinese embassy and Hong Kong’s Economic and Trade Office in Berlin seeking comment went unanswered.
The legal amendments being pushed by the territory’s government mark one of the starkest challenges to its legal system and are increasingly troubling its business, political and diplomatic communities.
The territory’s independent legal system was guaranteed under the laws governing Hong Kong’s return from British to Chinese rule 22 years ago, and is seen by the financial hub’s business and diplomatic communities as its strongest remaining asset amid encroachments from Beijing. Hong Kong’s extensive autonomy is guaranteed until 2047.
Wong spoke to Reuters before a seminar on human rights in China in the Bundestag lower house on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, which was marked with a somber candlelight vigil in Hong Kong attended by tens of thousands.
Wong is one of two Hong Kong advocates facing rioting charges in Hong Kong who have been granted refugee status by Germany.
China’s Xinhua news agency on May 25 said that Beijing had made “solemn representations” to Germany over its decision, demanding Berlin correct its “mistakes.”
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) has also expressed “deep regrets and strong objections” to Germany about the case.
Hong Kong authorities deny persecuting activists.
Greens parliamentary leader Katrin Goering-Eckardt said that German companies doing business in China should become more aware of the country’s human rights violations, including the detention of more than 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in what advocates have said are mass detention camps.
“German companies are doing business in China very carelessly,” she said.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that companies that take part in human rights violations and mass surveillance in China are granted no public contracts in Germany,” Goering-Eckardt said. “We must sanction human rights violators.”
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