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LONDON: Britain voiced alarm on Friday (December 11) after Hong Kong media mogul and Beijing critic Jimmy Lai, who has British citizenship, became the most prominent figure yet charged under a law. generalized national security.
Lai, 73, is the owner of Hong Kong’s best-selling Apple Daily, a popular tabloid that is blatantly pro-democracy and fiercely critical of the authorities.
Police charged him Friday with “collusion with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security.”
READ: Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai indicted under national security law
“The UK remains deeply concerned by the focus of the Hong Kong authorities in pursuing legal cases against pro-democracy figures like Jimmy Lai,” a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters.
“We have raised this case with the authorities and will continue to pressure them at the highest levels to end their attacks on pro-democracy voices.”
Lai has had British citizenship since before Britain returned Hong Kong to the Chinese government in 1997. However, Britain’s Foreign Office has said it cannot offer him consular assistance as China does not recognize dual citizenship.
The crimes contemplated in the new law carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
READ: Hong Kong National Security Law: 5 Key Facts You Need to Know
China’s crackdown on Hong Kong has dramatically accelerated since it imposed the security law in June, with opposition politicians disqualified from the legislature and dozens of activists indicted or investigated.
Some pro-democracy figures have fled abroad. One, Nathan Law, held his first meeting with a UK minister on Wednesday after moving to the UK in July.
The meeting involving Home Affairs Minister Priti Patel came while reviewing a plan to further relax entry rules for holders of British national (overseas) passports from Hong Kong, a legacy of recent years. British rule over the territory.
“The BNO scheme means a lot to the Hong Kong people who have tasted freedom but are gradually losing it,” Law said after the meeting.
In a debate on Hong Kong on Monday, British lawmakers expressed strong support for Lai and three young protest leaders who were jailed last week.
They expressed particular fury at London and Hong Kong-based banking giant HSBC for freezing bank accounts linked to democracy figures.
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith accused HSBC of acting in a “shameful and appalling manner” and demanded retaliation against the bank by the UK government.
But unlike the US government, London has so far backtracked from imposing financial and travel bans on Chinese and Hong Kong leaders in response to the security law.
