Government calls for audit of UK and Hong Kong officials’ assets in relation to human rights abuses | Political news
A cross-party group of MPs has asked the government to conduct an audit of the UK assets of Chinese and Hong Kong officials linked to human rights abuses.
A group of 110 MPs wrote to Foreign Minister Liz Truss calling for an inspection after recent research by human rights NGO Hong Kong Watch found nine Hong Kong officials and 12 “patriotic” politicians. ” is accused of complicity in human rights violations in this city with overseas assets. .
This includes five Hong Kong officials and six politicians own property in the UK.
Labor MPs Siobhain McDonagh and Conservatives Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Tom Tugendhat are leading the call and have urged Ms Truss to use the upcoming two-year celebration since the enactment of Hong Kong’s National Security Law as an opportunity to review an audit.
They said the audit could form the basis for a future Hong Kong-specific sanctions list.
Following protests against the government’s takeover of Hong Kong in 2019, the Chinese government passed the National Security Law in 2020.
The act stipulates four counts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign organizations, with any public push to secede Hong Kong from China being considered a crime.
About a million people – in a city 7.5m wide – marched against the extradition bill
The Hong Kong government is accused of being a puppet government of the CCP
It has been heavily criticized by other countries, mainly in the West, and prompted countries such as the UK, US, Canada and Australia to relax immigration laws for Hong Kong migrants fleeing the regime. .
In January, MI5 warned a Chinese government employee, Christine Lee, “engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), meddling with members in the country. festival”.
Read more on Sky News:
Hong Kong cardinal, 90 years old, in court accused of violating China’s national security law
Hong Kong leader says she won’t seek second term after overseeing tough new security law
Ms McDonagh, who sits on the Treasury Committee, said: “Anyone accused of human rights abuses, including in Hong Kong, should not be allowed to keep property or property here in the UK.
“We must ask ourselves what it means to be complicit and whether our human rights claims stand up to reality. A full audit of these assets is urgently needed.”
Please use Chrome browser for more accessible video player
Hong Kong population increases in UK
Mr. Tugendhat said a deeper understanding of CCP officials’ holdings in the UK was “an important step – this we should start now”.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who along with Mr Tugendhat was banned from China for speaking out against the country’s human rights abuses, said Ms Truss should learn from the West’s response to the Ukraine war , in which hundreds of Russian politicians and oligarchs were punished.
Undergoing an audit of the assets of Chinese and Hong Kong officials in the UK, he said, “would be a path to the UK eventually rolling out its specific Magnitsky-style sanctions list. Hong Kong to those officials responsible for the human rights abuses taking place in the city”.
