A change in extradition rules could put Hong Kongers at risk of persecution from China
Hong Kong students and Amnesty International stage a pro-democracy protest on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow city centre, 2020. (Iain Masterton / Alamy)
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Security minister Dan Jarvis has redrafted extradition rules to allow for returns to Hong Kong on a “case by case” basis.
He claims Hong Kongers will not be extradited for politically motivated purposes. But when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intentionally reframes political cases as ordinary crimes, will the UK government be able to identify political motivation in Hong Kong prosecutions?
Having seen Hong Kongers’ visas rejected due to politically motivated ‘criminal records’ and a friend’s asylum claim denied on the basis that she was able to leave Hong Kong by plane, I have lost confidence in the UK’s ability to identify politically motivated persecution and am deeply troubled by this government’s approach to Hong Kong affairs in general.
The total lack of consultation on how changing extradition rules might impact the Hong Kongers who escaped persecution to live in the UK makes us feel unseen. In 2019, millions of Hong Kongers took to the streets in protest against a proposed law that would have allowed suspects to be transferred from Hong Kong to China; extradition is an issue that resonates deeply within our community and the government should have known this.
Since the 2020 implementation of the National Security Law (NSL), the rule of law in Hong Kong has been dismantled. NSL trials are conducted without juries. Judges are handpicked by Hong Kong’s chief executive and offences, such as ‘collusion’, ‘sedition’ and ‘secession’, are defined in vague and expansive terms designed to be weaponised by government prosecutors. A June 2025 Amnesty International analysis showed that more than 80 per cent of 255 individuals targeted under NSL legislation in Hong Kong since June 2020 were engaged in forms of legitimate expression that should not have been criminalised.
As a fair trial can no longer be guaranteed in Hong Kong, extraditing a person there is no different in practice from sending them directly to mainland China, where the courts have a 99 per cent criminal case conviction rate. Moreover, Hong Kong recently introduced legislation to cement the process under which ‘complex cases’ can be transferred to China at the discretion of the mainland-run Office for Safeguarding National Security, though this has yet to happen in practice.
The UK government appears not to fully grasp these circumstances and its stance towards China leaves British citizens and residents dangerously exposed. Its intention to “co-operate where we can” with Beijing in the hope of economic gain, while failing to fully consider the long-term consequences of allowing Beijing to expand its influence in the UK – which is what will certainly happen if China’s proposed super-embassy is approved at Royal Mint Court – demonstrates a dangerous naivety.
Labour’s lack of red lines in dealing with China leaves Hong Kongers like me fearing that our safety could be traded away
Earlier this year, I testified to the Joint Committee on Human Rights about having a HK$1m Hong Kong police bounty issued for my arrest. I shared my experience of being followed and threatened here in the UK, the impact the bounty has had on my life, and the government’s lack of understanding and boldness in tackling transnational repression.
The government’s hesitance over reprimanding Chinese diplomats for these bounties is borne out of a fear of jeopardising the UK-China economic relationship. Failure to help Jimmy Lai, a British citizen who has been imprisoned on a sham fraud conviction and absurd national security charges for more than 1,700 days, speaks to the same weakness of will. Labour’s lack of red lines in dealing with China leaves Hong Kongers like me fearing that our safety could be traded away.
That said, there are several Labour MPs, not least my own – Mark Sewards – along with Blair McDougall, Neil Coyle, James Naish, Alex Sobel, and others, who are doing a remarkable job of standing up for Hong Kongers in their constituencies.
I trust we can count on their support to close the loophole created by the redrafted extradition rules and reaffirm that no Hong Konger or British citizen will ever be sent back to face trial under Hong Kong’s compromised legal system.
