Labour is accused of betraying critics of China in UK who fled to Britain by opening door to extraditions
Critics fear a legal change quietly announced by the Government will end the five-year ban on people being sent from the UK to face justice in the former colony.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said he wanted to 'enable co-operation' with Hong Kong once more, after the Tories suspended the extradition treaty in response to a security crackdown by Beijing amid fears that dissidents could be sent on to China.
He wrote in a letter to the Conservatives that secondary legislation was needed, removing Hong Kong from its designation in the 2003 Extradition Act, so the UK can co-operate with it on a 'case-by-case ad hoc basis'.
Currently a request cannot be allowed 'even if there were strong operational grounds to do so', Mr Jarvis wrote.
Shadow National Security Minister Alicia Kearns said it was an 'extraordinary betrayal of Hong Kongers', more than 150,000 of whom have come to the UK on British National (Overseas) Visas since 2021.
It comes as Labour is expected to approve plans for a Chinese 'mega-embassy' in London despite security fears, and as Sir Keir Starmer prepares to make his first visit to the communist superpower later this year.
Critics fear a legal change quietly announced by the Government will end the five-year ban on people being sent from the UK to face justice in the former colony (pictured left: Security minister Dan Jarvis, pictured right: Shadow Security Minister Alicia Kearns)
Ms Kearns said: 'This would allow the Chinese Communist Party to demand the extradition of dissidents for any number of falsified charges.
'I fear this is a grubby, shameful backhander – alongside a new embassy – for quick bucks to bail out Labour's failed economic strategy. Under no circumstances should the Government reinstate extradition as the rule of law has been severely eroded in Hong Kong.'
And Mark Sabah of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation said: 'This is an awful decision by the Government. The question now is what else has Labour promised the CCP in order to secure the trade deal they covet so much?'
Chloe Cheung, who fled Hong Kong in 2020 when she was 15 years old and had a £100,000 bounty issued by the CCP-controlled Hong Kong government for any information that could lead to her capture, told the Mail: 'If the Government follows through with this I would feel completely betrayed by Labour.
'I am really, really scared. If I were extradited I would be sent straight to prison under the National Security Law.'
But last night the Home Office insisted the Extradition Act 2003 (Amendments to Designations) Order 2025, which will be voted on by Parliament after the summer, merely reflected in law the existing suspension of the extradition treaty with Hong Kong –and that co-operation was not resuming.
Security Minister Mr Jarvis said: 'It is entirely incorrect to say the UK has restored extradition co-operation with Hong Kong.
'The 1997 treaty remains suspended and this legislation simply completes the severing of ties between the British and Hong Kong extradition systems.
'This amendment is in order to give legal effect to the suspension of the extradition treaty.'
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