Hong Kongers sign petition asking Scott Morrison to condemn proposed extradition laws
More than 12,000 Hong Kong people living in Australia have signed a petition to ask Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help their countrymen back home by condemning the proposed extradition laws.
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EXCLUSIVE: More than 12,000 people from Hong Kong living in Australia have signed a petition calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help their compatriots back home in their “fight for freedom”.
The petition was delivered to Mr Morrison’s electoral office in Cronulla on Monday and comes after almost two million Hong Kong residents staged the biggest protest in the former British colony’s history on Sunday.
The proposed changes to Hong Kong’s extradition laws — which would allow Australians passing through Hong Kong to be extradited to China to face criminal charges — are being fiercely opposed by Hong Kongers.
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Lin Bin, who moved to Australia in 1991, said the proposed extradition laws were a worry for him and his family.
“We regularly go to Hong Kong to visit our relatives and friends and we are concerned for our safety,” he said.
The petition calls on Mr Morrison to join other countries in condemning the proposed extradition laws.
“The proposed extradition law can apply to foreigners in Hong Kong, including over 100,000 Australians that reside in Hong Kong on a long-term basis,” it says.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Australia supported freedom of speech and peaceful protest.
“Australia values Hong Kong’s unique advantages and freedoms under ‘One Country, Two Systems’, the rule of law and its independent judiciary.”
The Daily Telegraph spoke to several Australians working in Hong Kong on Monday but none were comfortable speaking on the record about the proposed extradition changes, which have now been postponed indefinitely by Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam.
One Australian banking executive said the protests were the result of a “slow crackdown” by the Chinese government over more than five years’.
“The Chinese have been slowly chipping away at Hong Kong and these extradition laws were the sledgehammer than pushed people over the edge,” he said.
“There are also more direct links to China now, with the bridge to Macau and Zhuhai, a superhighway connecting to Shenzen and a high speed rail to the mainland.”
Economist Clifford Bennett said the protests would have a minimal impact on the long term outlook for Hong Kong and China or Australia’s economy.
“There may in fact be some upside for Australia, in that some wealthy HK residents increase their overseas assets and property holdings.”
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