A cross-party group of MPs, peers, and international human rights leaders has written an open letter (opens pdf) to the Prime Minister calling on him to take a stand on Hong Kong, as pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong faces the prospect of life imprisonment.

The letter has 28 signatories and includes two former Foreign Secretaries, Lord Patten of Barnes, the last Governor of Hong Kong; Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative Party leader, who was himself sanctioned by Beijing in 2021 for speaking out on China’s human rights record; and Sir Bill Browder, the campaigner behind the Magnitsky sanctions regime now used against human rights abusers worldwide.

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It draws on the Prime Minister’s own recent words – that “it is more important than ever that Britain stands for something”. The signatories ask the Prime Minister to apply that principle to Hong Kong and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and to hold China to account for what they describe as its abusive use of the National Security Law (NSL) to criminalise peaceful democratic activity.

It raises the case of Joshua Wong, a pro-democracy advocate who is currently in prison, awaiting sentencing – with the prospect of facing life in jail. His activism sought to hold Beijing to the “One Country, Two Systems” framework agreed between the UK and China in 1997.

The letter also points to the effects of the NSL in Britain. Two men were convicted at the Old Bailey this year of spying on Hong Kong dissidents here, reportedly also monitoring British parliamentarians. Hong Kongers settled in the UK have bounties on their heads. Police are investigating footage appearing to show Chinese embassy security in London brandishing banned electroshock weapons at peaceful protesters.

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“The CCP, having trashed the Sino-British agreement on Hong Kong and imposed their National Security Law over English Common Law are now arresting Hong Kong residents who only want to be governed by a democratic government in Hong Kong as agreed," says MP Iain Duncan Smith.

"Instead the CCP is arresting those calling for freedom on trumped up charges and locking them away. Such is the tragic fate of Jimmy Lai and now Joshua Wong. Sadly the British government have done next to nothing about it and instead Kow Tow to President Xi.”

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