‘Fact twisting’: Hong Kong government hits back at UK foreign secretary’s remarks on national security law
- ‘Clearly, this is hypocrisy out of political motivation with double standards,’ government says in statement
- Rebuttal came a day after UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said civil rights in city were under threat after imposition of security legislation
The Hong Kong government has hit out at British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, rejecting his claims about the city’s national security law as political smearing, fact twisting and malicious fabrication.
The rebuttal came on Tuesday, a day after Cleverly said at the United Nations Human Rights Council that civil rights in Hong Kong were under threat after Beijing’s imposition of the security legislation in 2020.
Cleverly said in his address that under the national security law, independent media outlets had been forced to close down, while those who spoke out, including journalists or businessmen such as the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, had been arrested.
“The right to freedom of speech and assembly guaranteed in Hong Kong’s Basic Law has been eroded,” he said, referring to the city’s mini-constitution. “We call on the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities to uphold the Sino-British Joint Declaration and urge them to implement the recommendations of the [Human Rights Committee] report.”
In a report last year, the Human Rights Committee asked Hong Kong to repeal the security law, saying it was a threat to civil rights.
In Tuesday’s statement, a Hong Kong government spokesman said Britain also had many laws to protect its own national security.
“The government official concerned chooses to continue to wantonly smear the [national security law] and deliberately ignore the fact that the implementation of the [security law] has enabled the livelihood and economic activities of the Hong Kong community at large to resume as normal, and the business environment to be restored,” the spokesman said.