Top EU diplomats step up criticism of China’s crackdown on Hong Kong

Name: Electoral system needs to change so patriots rule Hong Kong, Carrie Lam says
Uploaded: 2021-02-22T19:44:00.000Z
Duration: 1 min 32 s
Description: Electoral system needs to change so patriots rule Hong Kong, Carrie Lam says

Brussels’ foreign policy leader says the situation in the city ‘keeps deteriorating’ but did not introduce any new sanctions

US secretary of state joins call for several hours, as China and Russia are earmarked as potential areas for transatlantic collaboration

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European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. Photo: AP

Finbarr Bermingham

Published: 3:44am, 23 Feb 2021Updated: 4:57am, 23 Feb 2021

The European Union escalated its criticism of Beijing’s political crackdown on Hong Kong on Monday, but stopped short of rolling out major sanctions on the city’s officials for the continued squeeze on opposition figures.

Hong Kong was high on the agenda of the meeting of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, comprising the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers and senior EU officials, with Brussels’ top diplomat, Josep Borrell, referring a situation in the city that “keeps deteriorating”.

At a press conference after the meeting, Borrell confirmed agreement on a “two-step process” that will be added to the previous response package to the national security law imposed on Hong Kong last summer, which was rolled out last July.

“The first step involves measures designed to increase support to civil society, including coordination with like-minded parties and outreach to relevant authorities,” Borrell said.

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Electoral system needs to change so patriots rule Hong Kong, Carrie Lam says

Further steps will be taken in case of “further deterioration in the situation, such as aggressive reform of the electoral process in Hong Kong or further erosion of the independence of the judiciary”, Borrell said, without specifying what the steps might be.

Concerns continued to be stoked about the waning prospects of free and open elections on Monday, after Xia Baolong, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, declared that the city’s administrative, legislative and judicial branches, as well as its more than 260 statutory bodies, must be led by “true patriots”.