Hongkongers face extradition under new Beijing security law

A draft of China’s new security law allows Hong Kong citizens to be extradited for trial on the mainland.

Riot police gather in Hong Kong last month. Picture: AFP

A draft of China’s new security law allows Hong Kong citizens to be extradited for trial on the mainland, according to pro-Beijing politicians.

Beijing is bypassing Hong Kong’s own legislature to impose a law that Britain says breaches the terms of the “one country, two systems” agreement under which the territory was returned to China in 1997. Mass protests flared in Hong Kong last year over proposals to extradite its citizens to China but the new overarching security law being imposed now appears to include new extradition powers.

According to state media, the draft legislation also proscribes separatism, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion in the former UK colony. It is expected to be approved within weeks by the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament.

G7 foreign ministers on Thursday urged Beijing to rethink the plan, saying in a joint statement that it would “risk ­seriously undermining” the principles under which Hong Kong has been governed.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded by saying foreign powers should “stop meddling with Hong Kong ­affairs and interfering with China’s internal politics”.

A draft law has been presented to the standing committee of the NPC, which is meeting this week. It is expected to be ­formally approved and passed into law within weeks.

The draft has not been made public but a senior Beijing politician said it was framed to allow mainland jurisdiction over “some extreme grave cases under extremely special conditions”. Tam Yiu-chung, a pro-Beijing politician who sits on the national parliament’s standing committee, said Hong Kong residents could be sent to the mainland to be tried on charges of endangering national security.

“If Beijing thinks it’s necessary, such cases won’t be handled by Hong Kong courts, but there’s the option to send the cases to the mainland,” Mr Tam said.

Regina Ip, a former secretary of security and a pro-Beijing politician, agreed that the security law draft gave Beijing the authority to extradite suspects to the mainland for trial and predicted it could stir further unrest.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam suspended the extradition bill in an effort to quell the protests and abandoned the ­effort entirely in September, leading Beijing to step in and impose the new wide-ranging laws.

The Times