On Wednesday, 12 February, China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, will meet British Foreign Secretary David Lammy in London when the two co-chair the China-UK Strategic Dialogue, the first such strategy dialogue between the two countries since 2018. The London meeting follows British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ January mission to China to resume the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue, stalled since 2019. The concluding policy paper made only two weak references to human rights. The resumption of such strategic dialogues between the UK and China sends a concerning message, in particular at a time of deteriorating human rights in China and mounting transnational repression in the UK. ARTICLE 19 reiterates calls for the UK to prioritise human rights in its engagement with China.
Wang Yi’s visit to London comes days after upwards of 4,000 people protested against the proposed site of a new Chinese embassy at the Royal Mint Court. Protesters focused on China’s gross human rights abuses against Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and others in China, as well as the threats of deepening harassment and surveillance of overseas dissidents in the UK. These threats would be supercharged by an embassy in the heart of London, which would be China’s largest in Europe.
ARTICLE 19’s Head of Global China Programme Michael Caster commented:
‘Because Wang Yi is kicking off his Europe trip in London, the UK has an opportunity to frame the mission as one of answering tough questions about China’s abhorrent human rights record. Rather than entertaining business-as-usual negotiations, world leaders should be pushing China for accountability. This should begin with concretely addressing China’s treatment of British nationals and its transnational repression into the UK.’
Wang Yi reassumed his position as Foreign Minister in July 2023, having previously served in the role from 2013 until 2022, after his then-predecessor Qin Gang was disappeared and purged. However, his real authority is derived from his role as Director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party. He is known as a highly capable, if not pugnacious, top diplomat, emblematic of China’s confrontational ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomacy style.
In addition to the United Kingdom, Wang Yi will also travel to Ireland to press for deeper cooperation between China and Europe, and to the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where he is expected to ‘share China’s position on major international issues’. This is likely to include greater emphasis on multilateralism, China’s favoured means of international governance, less open to the transparency and civil society engagement promoted by multi-stakeholderism, and efforts to reframe China as a more reliable global partner as world leaders adapt to the new US Administration’s America First foreign policy.
The UK can influence this narrative by keeping human rights central in its talks this week. In particular, ARTICLE 19 urges Foreign Secretary David Lammy to highlight China’s human rights record pertaining to broken treaties and its abuses toward British citizens and nationals.
Answer for its abandonment of the Sino-British Joint Declaration
This past December marked 40 years since the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, which laid out the conditions for the July 1997 British handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China. Among its provisions, it guaranteed Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy from China under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle. This has been enshrined in the Basic Law of Hong Kong. The Joint Declaration has been registered as a binding treaty with the United Nations since 1985.
The Joint Declaration lays out that the ‘rights and freedoms, including those of the person, of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of travel, of movement, of correspondence, of strike, of choice of occupation, of academic research and of religious belief will be ensured by law in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’. Despite this, Hong Kong has moved rapidly from being a vibrant beacon of free expression in the region to increasingly resembling China as one of the most repressive environments in the world, in direct contravention of China’s treaty promises with the United Kingdom.
The assault on Hong Kong’s freedoms has in large part been driven by the Beijing-imposed 2020 National Security Law (NSL) and 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, rubber- stamped by a compliant Legislative Council.
The laws have been used for widespread persecution, arrest and imprisonment. According to documentation by the exiled Hong Kong Democracy Council, there are an estimated 1,920 political prisoners in Hong Kong. This includes the 45 pro-democracy figures mass sentenced on 19 November 2024 and British citizen and pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai, who has been arbitrarily detained since August 2020.
Hong Kong has experienced one of the starkest declines in freedom of expression in the past decade, as seen in ARTICLE 19’s Global Expression Report. The authorities have furthermore sought to impose global censorship, exemplified in a May 2024 injunction against YouTube for streaming a popular protest anthem. Such censorship has influenced Hong Kongers residing in the UK, leading to self-censorship in conversations with family and loved ones still residing in China and Hong Kong.
In meeting with Wang Yi this week, David Lammy would do well to recall China’s record on its past agreements such as the Sino-British Joint Declaration. In 2017, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry under Wang Yi unilaterally declared the treaty an ‘historical document that no longer has any realistic meaning’. The implication being China was no longer bound by large parts of the Joint Declaration. This should inform any agreements moving forward.
Demand an immediate end to the arbitrary detention of British citizens
First detained under Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law in August 2020, media magnate and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, 77, who is a British citizen, has remained in solitary confinement for over 1,400 days. He faces trial for serious charges under the NSL, which carry a potential maximum life sentence, yet Hong Kong has denied him consular support.
In 2015 British citizen Lee Bo vanished along with several Hong Kong bookseller colleagues in a coordinated attack for selling titles critical of Chinese Communist Party elites. He was ‘involuntarily removed to the mainland without any due process’ in December of that year in a ‘serious breach’ of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, as stated by the UK government at the time. In late February 2016, he on Chinese state-owned Phoenix Television claiming to have returned to China of his own accord and renouncing his British citizenship. It has all the hallmarks of a forced confession. Throughout the ordeal, Lee Bo was also denied consular access. reappeared on Chinese state-owned Phoenix Television claiming to have returned to China of his own accord and renouncing his British citizenship. The appearance had all the hallmarks of a forced confession. Throughout the ordeal, Lee Bo was also denied consular access.
In meeting with Wang Yi, the UK should call for the immediate and unconditional release of Jimmy Lai and other British citizens and dual nationals arbitrarily detained in China and Hong Kong. Recognising the right under international law, David Lammy should furthermore demand full consular access for Jimmy Lai and other detained British citizens.
Transnational repression in the UK must end
David Lammy has an obligation to speak for the estimated 150,000 Hong Kongers and other minority and Chinese groups living in the UK, many of whom increasingly live in fear of transnational repression.
For example, on 16 October 2022 when a group of Hong Kongers gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate in Manchester to protest China’s human rights abuses, the demonstration quickly turned violent as consulate officials attacked the protesters. Bob Chan, one of the protesters and a British National Overseas (BNO) passport holder, was violently dragged by masked men into the consulate grounds and beaten up. He was pulled out to safety by British police. Chan was later treated at a hospital for his injuries.
China’s Consul General in Manchester, Zheng Xiyuan, the second highest diplomat in the UK, later admitted to participating in the attack, telling Sky News that Chan ‘was abusing my country, my leader, I think it’s my duty’. There is no record of Wang Yi having expressed disapproval of these actions.
Bob Chan is one of several hundred thousand British National Overseas passport holders. The BNO was created as part of the 1997 British handover of Hong Kong, but applications surged following the imposition of the National Security Law in 2020. In January 2021 China and Hong Kong announced they were refusing to recognise BNO passports, which prevents BNO passport holders residing in the UK from accessing their retirement savings in Hong Kong.
Perhaps starkest of China’s transnational repression against Hong Kongers residing in the UK has been the Hong Kong National Security Police issuing international arrest warrants and $1 million HKD ($128,361 USD) bounties on nine Hong Kongers in the UK in July and December 2023 and December 2024.
This transnational repression of dissidents abroad has been compounded by the harassment and targeting of their family members still in China, such as London-based member of Hong Kong Democracy Council Carmen Lau.
Days before Wang Yi’s visit, on 10 February, two members of Carmen Lau’s extended family in Hong Kong were taken for questioning by National Security Police. A member of the disbanded Civic Party in Hong Kong, Lau has been an active advocate for human rights in the UK, including supporting the demonstrations over the weekend against the Chinese embassy in London. The timing of the act of collective punishment, a common tactic of transnational repression in going after family members, is no coincidence.
Such acts of transnational repression against BNO citizens and others residing in the United Kingdom by China must be investigated. Meanwhile, David Lammy must press Wang Yi for answers on such ongoing acts of transnational repression, including those against extended family members still in China, and make clear that failure to immediately address them will be met by increasing concrete accountability measures.
‘Failing to hold China accountable now, at the resumption of strategic talks, for its transgressions of bilateral agreements, human rights abuses in China, and transnational repression in the UK would be tantamount to writing a blank check for future impunity. Wang Yi must not be allowed to manipulate his forthcoming delegation into more whitewashing and buying evasion for accountability through trade deals or similarly empty promises. The UK has an opportunity to shape this narrative in setting the tone for one of prioritising human rights and accountability while China’s top diplomat tours the UK and Europe,’ said Michael.
For more information:
Michael Caster, Head of Global China Programme, [email protected]