Letters | Beijing had no hand in pushing for Hong Kong extradition bill: but this is why protests will continue

I am a fan, and friend, of Michael Chugani, but I must take issue with his complaint against the aborted extradition bill as another instance of interference by Beijing (“Beijing should loosen grip on Hongkongers”, June 27).

As Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has reiterated, and as confirmed by Mr Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to Britain, the rendition of fugitive offenders (amendment) bill was initiated by the Hong Kong government to deal with the Taiwan murder case – in which a Hongkonger accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan fled to Hong Kong – and also to plug a long-standing loophole in our criminal justice system.

Back in December 1998, in matters arising from two criminal cases in which the suspects escaped justice in Hong Kong by fleeing to the mainland, then-legislator Martin Lee Chu-ming moved a motion in Legco urging the government to “expeditiously discuss and conclude an agreement with the central people’s government, on the basis of internationally accepted principles, on rendition arrangements between the mainland and the SAR, so as to restore the public’s confidence in the SAR’s judicial jurisdiction.”

As the security secretary, I had reported to Legco’s security panel that then-chief secretary Anson Chan had undertaken to conclude discussions with mainland authorities as expeditiously as possible.