Canada joined the UK and Australia to express concern about China’s plan to ram through draconian security laws in Hong Kong effectively ending democracy in the special administrative region.
“We are deeply concerned at proposals for introducing legislation related to national security in Hong Kong,” said a joint statement by UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne, responding to China’s proposed new security law for Hong Kong[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-from-the-uk-australia-and-canada-on-hong-kong. “The legally binding Joint Declaration, signed by China and the UK, sets out that Hong Kong will have a high degree of autonomy.”
“It also provides that rights and freedoms, including those of the person, of the press, of assembly, of association and others, will be ensured by law in Hong Kong, and that the provisions of the two UN covenants on human rights (the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) shall remain in force,” the statement read.
“Making such a law on Hong Kong’s behalf without the direct participation of its people, legislature or judiciary would clearly undermine the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, under which Hong Kong is guaranteed a high degree of autonomy,” the foreign ministers said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirmed the sentiments in his daily new conference.
“We are concerned with the situation in Hong Kong,” Trudeau said. “We have 300,000 Canadians who live in Hong Kong and that’s one of the reasons why we want to ensure that the one country, two systems approach continues for Hong Kong.”
“We have long called for a de-escalation of tensions and genuine dialogue between Hong Kong citizens and Beijing, and we continue to call for that, and we will keep monitoring the situation closely,” he added.
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| 1. | ↑ | https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-from-the-uk-australia-and-canada-on-hong-kong |