China has a history of putting politics above the law: that’s the worry with Hong Kong’s extradition bill

I refer to “Progress of mainland overlooked in extradition debate” (May 9), where Grenville Cross downplays the trepidation that many Hongkongers feel towards the Chinese criminal justice system. As a senior barrister, he will hold a high degree of trust in legal institutions, and will consider your correspondent Gauri Venkitaraman’s letter (“Extradition worries of public are clear as confidence in government hits rock bottom”, May 10) to be “woeful ignorance”. However, this letter expresses what many ordinary local people feel towards our government’s unseemly haste to push through the amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance.

One piece of information that Mr Cross, a former director of public prosecutions, should supply to allay people’s deep concerns is the conviction rate of the criminal justice system in mainland China, compared with the conviction rate in Hong Kong’s criminal cases. However, I suspect this will expose an almost total lack of acquittal in China’s criminal justice system, which would only reinforce our worries.

Ms Venkitaraman is correct that the credibility of our senior officials is at “rock bottom”, so Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung’s opinion piece – “Justice demands that we amend our extradition laws” (May 10) – is seen as a mere public relations exercise and cannot be taken seriously.

However, what is truly serious is that China has a history of placing politics above the law. It is completely unrealistic to expect that Hong Kong’s officials will ever deny an extradition request from mainland authorities. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has opened a Pandora’s box.

K.Y. Leung, Shouson Hill

Rest easy: Beijing won’t make fugitive requests lightly

People seem to worry about the new extradition law, my view is: not to worry. This new law will not affect our freedom of speech. You can continue to criticise communist China or do business in the mainland as before. Of course, the new law will enable the Beijing government to extradite any person, local or foreign, by producing prima facie evidence to prove they committed a crime in China, but it will cause publicity and be time-consuming.

The new law will be a sword over everybody’s head, but it will rarely fall on the neck of ordinary people. Its beauty is that the whole foreign community can potentially be held hostage. The new law is intended to enhance the bargaining power of the central government.

S.W. Lau, Central