March 27, 2025 – Today, the British government released its bi-annual report on Hong Kong for the six months to end-December 2024, assessing the territory’s implementation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.
The report published by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) expresses “concern” over the sentencing of the Hong Kong 45 and the persecution of British citizen and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, as well as thousands of other political prisoners, under the National Security Law.
The FCDO also references the case of the two Stand News editors, Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam Shiu-tung, convicted of sedition “merely for doing their jobs.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy also mentions his concern over the December 24 issuing of HK$1 million bounties on four more UK-resident Hong Kong activists, including Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation staffer Chloe Cheung.
While the CFHK Foundation echoes the FCDO in lamenting the decline of civil liberties and press freedom in Hong Kong, we urge the government to do more to counter the transnational repression of the Hong Kong community in Britain, which David Lammy rightly acknowledges “make a valued contribution to our economy, society, and culture.”
And we were disheartened when, even after meeting with the most recently bountied Hong Kongers, David Lammy persisted in recommending the approval of planning permission for a new Chinese super-embassy in London, a facility earmarked to house up to 700 ‘diplomats’ and is central to fears of expanding Chinese Communist Party (CCP) surveillance and intimidation.
Moreover, the report is simply wrong to commend Hong Kong’s role as a global financial centre, when CFHK Foundation research has exposed the extent to which, with Beijing’s endorsement, Hong Kong is now a global hub for sanctions evasion, facilitating illicit trade with the murderous regimes in Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
We are also disappointed that the FCDO recognises that judges “from other common law jurisdictions continued to sit on the Court of Final Appeal (CFA),” without noting that five UK judges have resigned due to the collapse of rule of law in the territory.
British interests would be better served if the government recommended that those still serving on the CFA from the UK, namely Lord Neuberger and Lord Hoffman, step down with immediate effect and stop “Lending Prestige to Persecution,” as detailed in another of our reports.
Mark Sabah, Director of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, said:
“The six-monthly report is an opportunity for us to review the FCDO’s priorities and see what it considers to be the big issues. Once again, there are no concrete actions to counteract any of the ongoing concerns held by so many people about the UK’s relationship with Hong Kong and China. The British government must realise that no action means more interference and more threats from the CCP.”
