Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said the UK must be more robust with Beijing, after China’s ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress, endorsed a security law for Hong Kong that has strained relations with the UK and the US.
The law will alter the territory’s mini-constitution, or Basic Law, to require its government to enforce measures to be decided later by Chinese leaders.
“This is the latest in a series of attempts by China to start to erode the joint deceleration which Britain co-signed with the Chinese government when we handed over Hong Kong, and protected its special status,” Ms Nandy told the BBC.
“That is the document, the basis for the rights that people in Hong Kong enjoy, the freedoms, the human rights, democracy and the the rule of law that has lasted since then.
“And last year we had the extradition bill, which attempted to encroach on those rights and freedoms. And since then we have seen a series of attempts to continue to do that.
“We want to see the UK government really step up now. We want to see the UK calling for concrete measures now to start to push back on this very aggressive approach by the Chinese government. Or there could be very, very serious implications for people in Hong Kong.
“The first thing that we want is an independent investigation into police brutality. But, most importantly, in the end, the only way that this will be resolved is by universal suffrage.”
