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Speaking about Beijing imposing the law that could see anyone who supports the pro-democracy movement incarcerated, the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong Baroness Natalie Bennett said: “This is effectively rule by decree and far from the assurances of autonomy the people of Hong Kong were given by both China and the UK with the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. We must also consider the timing of these announcements. The Hong Kong Police Force has recently used existing powers on social distancing to break up protests and has arrested pro-democracy activists.
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“It appears that Beijing is awarding Hong Kong’s administration further powers to clampdown on future protests.”
There has been widespread frustration at the British government’s muted initial response to China’s plans to impose the new security laws in Hong Kong.
The Government has so far urged China to respect the ‘one-party two systems’ principle, to which Natalie Bennett, in a letter sent exclusively to Express.co.uk, said: “Words are no longer sufficient, action is needed.”
This disturbing move by Beijing is an explicit breach of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration that was signed by both the UK and China in order to protect Hong Kong’s independent legislature and keep its political system separate from that of the mainland after Britain’s departure on 1 July 1997.
A spokesperson from the grassroots campaign group “Stand with Hong Kong” commented: “Hong Kong is being frog-marched towards a police state.
“What is left of our legal and political system is being shredded up before our eyes.
“Any pretence at autonomy is being rapidly undermined and the British government must denounce these actions and hold China to account for this latest fundamental breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration before it is too late.”
According to pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, the new security law could see the mobilisation of “more than a million people” onto the streets of the city in protest at the flagrant disregard of Hong Kong’s autonomy by China.
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With the enforcement of the new security law via decree directly from Beijing, China has effectively ended its commitment to allow life in Hong Kong to remain unchanged for a period of 50 years until 2047.
President Xi Jinping’s stated goal is to bring Hong Kong and Taiwan under Chinese centralised control, and with his multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative projects worldwide, he has revealed his hand as an ambitious and expansionist dictator, with a feverish goal to spread CCP influence, ownership and values worldwide.
Speaking to Aljazeera Doctor Andreas Fulda of the University of Nottingham said: “The international community has to push back.
“Because it will not end in Hong Kong.
“If we don’t want to see a war in the Taiwan Strait it must be made very clear to the authorities in Beijing that this has to stop.”
But now the UK Foreign Office appears to be afraid that by declaring the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, is in breach of 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration that they lose their ability to urge China to commit to the “one-party two systems” obligation.
But, Doctor Fulda said: “The problem is that the CCP has already decided to transition to ‘one party, one system’ and the UK Foreign Office is in denial of reality.”
About the disregard for the ‘one party, two systems’ principle, Baroness Bennett said: “The imposition of this law, which has large human rights implications on the people of Hong Kong without, scrutiny by Hongkongers is as large an affront to the supposed legal reality of ‘one country, two systems’ principle that we have yet seen.”
Mr Fulda recently tweeted: “China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office has recently used genocidal language such as referring to Hong Kong’s democracy movement as a ‘political virus’.
“And they have called for the elimination of so-called ‘poisonous and violent protesters’.”
Andreas Fulda states that the international community needs a countermeasure.
He tweeted: “We need Magnitsky-style sanctions against responsible individuals in China and in Hong Kong.”
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