UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson bashed China on Wednesday for breaking the promises it made in the Sino-British joint declaration that saw Hong Kong handed back to China
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2020) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson bashed China on Wednesday for breaking the promises it made in the Sino-British joint declaration that saw Hong Kong handed back to China.
The Chinese parliament passed a security law on Tuesday that penalizes secession, subversion and terrorism in the autonomous city. The UK and its allies say that it threatens rights and freedoms protected by the declaration.
"The enactment and imposition of this national security law constitutes a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British joint declaration. It violates Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and is in direct conflict with Hong Kong basic law," Johnson said in parliament.
The prime minister repeated his threat that all Hong Kong's holders of British National Overseas passports will have a path to UK citizenship.
"We made clear... that if China continued down this path we would introduce a new route for those with British National Overseas status to enter the UK, granting them limited leave to remain with the ability to live and work in the UK and thereafter to apply for citizenship � and that is precisely what we will do now," he said.
Wednesday marks the 23rd anniversary of the city's handover from the British rule to China as part of the "one country, two systems" arrangement that guaranteed its special political, socioeconomic and legal rights.
Beijing and the city's authorities say that the new security law aims to punish illegal activities without harming the existing democratic freedoms of locals.
