LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong on Monday in a further escalation of its dispute with China over the introduction of a security law in the former colony, British newspapers reported.
FILE PHOTO: Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Dominic Raab, leaves Downing Street in London after the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), London, Great Britain, 11 May 2020. REUTERS / Toby Melville
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who on Sunday accused China of “serious” human rights violations, will announce the suspension of the treaty in parliament, the Times and Daily Telegraph newspapers said, citing sources.
Britain’s foreign affairs office declined to comment.
Such a move would be another nail in the coffin of what former Prime Minister David Cameron has launched as a “golden age” of ties to the world’s second-largest economy.
But London has been shocked by an offensive in Hong Kong and the perception that China did not tell the whole truth about the new coronavirus outbreak.
Last week Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL] The equipment will be fully purged from Britain’s 5G network in late 2027.
China has accused Britain of pleasing the United States.
Earlier on Sunday, China’s ambassador to Britain warned of a harsh response if London tried to sanction any of its officials, as some lawmakers in Johnson’s Conservative Party have demanded.
“If the UK government goes that far to impose sanctions on anyone in China, China will certainly give a decisive response,” Liu Xiaoming said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
“You have seen what happens in the United States: they sanction Chinese officials, we sanction their senators, their officials. I don’t want to see this happen in … China-UK relations. ”
Raab told the same program that he would not be attracted to future additions to Britain’s sanctions list, but denied that Britain is too weak to challenge China through this channel.
Britain says the new national security law violates agreements made before Hong Kong’s 1997 surrender to the Chinese government, and that China is crushing the freedoms that have helped make Hong Kong one of the world’s largest financial centers. world.
Officials from Hong Kong and Beijing have said the law is vital to plug holes in the national security defenses exposed by the recent protests. China has repeatedly told Western powers to stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs.
Reports by Andy Bruce in London and Aakriti Bhala in Bangalore; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Sonya Hepinstall
.
