[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]  Stephen Pollard [@stephenpollard](/creator/twitter/stephenpollard) on x 43.9K followers Created: 2025-07-25 15:50:55 UTC Here's my @Telegraph column on Labour's betrayal of Hong Kong dissidents: "Last Monday, Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, held talks in Beijing with Wang Yi, one of the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior diplomats. Sir Keir Starmer has said he wants a “strong UK-China relationship”, and both the Chancellor and Foreign Secretary have been to Beijing. Sir Keir is said to be planning a visit himself – the first by a British Prime Minister since the Conservatives realised in government that their embrace of the Chinese was, to put it mildly, naïve. Well, here’s a coincidence. Yesterday, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, quietly tabled an amendment to the 2003 Extradition Act on how Hong Kong is designated, establishing a “case-by-case” basis for extradition. According to the Home Office, this is a minor technical legal change to give full effect to the 2020 suspension of our extradition treaty with Hong Kong, after the arrest of hundreds of protesters in the territory. According to almost everyone else, however, the amendment actually bypasses the treaty and re-opens extradition. Hugo Keith KC, an extradition expert, put it thus: “In respect of Hong Kong, it looks like the Government is seeking to reverse, through a sleight of hand, the practical consequences of suspending the treaty.” ...In a letter to MPs, Mr Jarvis wrote that “the way to resolve this situation is to de-designate Hong Kong and Zimbabwe [which is also covered by the amendment] from the act so that we can cooperate with them on the case-by-case ad hoc basis available for non-treaty partners”. He said that a prima facie case must be made for extradition and he would “never allow a situation where Hongkongers or any other nationality is extradited for politically motivated purposes”. A Home Office source added that this was a legal technicality to allow for the rare extradition of those individuals accused of serious crimes such as rape and violence, rather than political dissidents. These arguments are pure and obvious sophistry. For one thing, no government has ever said that it is willing to extradite individuals on the basis of political expediency – and yet that is what now happens. Take the extradition treaty with the US. There have been a number of cases which arguably do not, objectively, justify extradition, but which have proceeded because the legislation enables it and the British government has not wanted a row with the US. More worryingly, China conflates violence and terror with political opposition as a matter of state policy. Pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai was imprisoned for fraud and now languishes in jail to silence him. Dissidents who now live here in the UK have been accused of terrorism by the Chinese because they were involved in pro-democracy protests, and they have had bounties placed on them by the Chinese. Under the proposed changes, China will indeed no longer be a designated country for extradition, allowing the Government to pretend that it is defending dissidents – but because undesignated countries can apply for their citizens to be returned to them on a case-by-case basis, extraditions to China will in fact resume. Because anyone who thinks that the Chinese will not seek extradition of Hongkongers who fled to the UK through the 2021 scheme, which offered sanctuary from China’s national security crackdown, is not so much naïve as an idiot – as is anyone who thinks they will not end up being extradited. This is a shameful, craven act by a government which seems to have turned craven diplomacy into its guiding principle." XXXXX engagements  **Related Topics** [keir starmer](/topic/keir-starmer) [beijing](/topic/beijing) [held talks](/topic/held-talks) [national security](/topic/national-security) [powell](/topic/powell) [kong](/topic/kong) [hong kong](/topic/hong-kong) [Post Link](https://x.com/stephenpollard/status/1948772961420210347)
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Stephen Pollard @stephenpollard on x 43.9K followers
Created: 2025-07-25 15:50:55 UTC
Here's my @Telegraph column on Labour's betrayal of Hong Kong dissidents:
"Last Monday, Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, held talks in Beijing with Wang Yi, one of the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior diplomats. Sir Keir Starmer has said he wants a “strong UK-China relationship”, and both the Chancellor and Foreign Secretary have been to Beijing. Sir Keir is said to be planning a visit himself – the first by a British Prime Minister since the Conservatives realised in government that their embrace of the Chinese was, to put it mildly, naïve.
Well, here’s a coincidence. Yesterday, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, quietly tabled an amendment to the 2003 Extradition Act on how Hong Kong is designated, establishing a “case-by-case” basis for extradition.
According to the Home Office, this is a minor technical legal change to give full effect to the 2020 suspension of our extradition treaty with Hong Kong, after the arrest of hundreds of protesters in the territory. According to almost everyone else, however, the amendment actually bypasses the treaty and re-opens extradition. Hugo Keith KC, an extradition expert, put it thus: “In respect of Hong Kong, it looks like the Government is seeking to reverse, through a sleight of hand, the practical consequences of suspending the treaty.”
...In a letter to MPs, Mr Jarvis wrote that “the way to resolve this situation is to de-designate Hong Kong and Zimbabwe [which is also covered by the amendment] from the act so that we can cooperate with them on the case-by-case ad hoc basis available for non-treaty partners”. He said that a prima facie case must be made for extradition and he would “never allow a situation where Hongkongers or any other nationality is extradited for politically motivated purposes”. A Home Office source added that this was a legal technicality to allow for the rare extradition of those individuals accused of serious crimes such as rape and violence, rather than political dissidents.
These arguments are pure and obvious sophistry. For one thing, no government has ever said that it is willing to extradite individuals on the basis of political expediency – and yet that is what now happens. Take the extradition treaty with the US. There have been a number of cases which arguably do not, objectively, justify extradition, but which have proceeded because the legislation enables it and the British government has not wanted a row with the US.
More worryingly, China conflates violence and terror with political opposition as a matter of state policy. Pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai was imprisoned for fraud and now languishes in jail to silence him. Dissidents who now live here in the UK have been accused of terrorism by the Chinese because they were involved in pro-democracy protests, and they have had bounties placed on them by the Chinese.
Under the proposed changes, China will indeed no longer be a designated country for extradition, allowing the Government to pretend that it is defending dissidents – but because undesignated countries can apply for their citizens to be returned to them on a case-by-case basis, extraditions to China will in fact resume.
Because anyone who thinks that the Chinese will not seek extradition of Hongkongers who fled to the UK through the 2021 scheme, which offered sanctuary from China’s national security crackdown, is not so much naïve as an idiot – as is anyone who thinks they will not end up being extradited.
This is a shameful, craven act by a government which seems to have turned craven diplomacy into its guiding principle."
XXXXX engagements
Related Topics keir starmer beijing held talks national security powell kong hong kong