Patten letter says Beijing statements on Liaison Office role a "flagrant breach of the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law."

In a letter to the Foreign Secretary on both Hong Kong and the coronavirus, Lord Patten of Barnes, the last British governor of Hong Kong, has argued that the recent statements by the Chinese Liaison Office on their role in Hong Kong are a ‘flagrant breach’ of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

He said:

"Beijing officials have made statements about their role in Hong Kong which are a flagrant breach of the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. They claim the right to call all the shots in Hong Kong thus destroying once and for all the promises that Hong Kong would have a high degree of local autonomy. They seem intent on destroying Deng Xiaoping’s concept of “one country, two systems”. At the same time a group of fifteen moderate and highly respected Democrats have been arrested for taking part in demonstrations last year as far back as August when 1.7 million people had taken to the streets.”

He continued to underline fears that this may only be the beginning:

”I have spoken to respected members of Hong Kong’s civil society this week, and they fear that this is only the beginning. They are concerned that the Chinese Communist Party are readying themselves to make mass disqualifications in the Legislative Council elections or worse still cancel those elections, enact draconian national security legislation that will seriously erode the rule of law, and continue with the politicised strategy of prosecution which is increasingly instilling fears about demonstrations in the hearts of Hong Kongers to the detriment of their fundamental right to peaceful assembly."

He turned to raise questions about the coronavirus cover-up and called for an international inquiry. He concluded by saying:

"I would be grateful for your assurance that the British Government will press for an expert mission to Wuhan and will encourage other countries to do the same. I hope we can also count on the British Government to call out China for its breaches of the Joint Declaration and to watch carefully for future attempts by Beijing to undermine the rule of law and to corrupt the electoral process in the months ahead. I’m sure you will want to urge others to do the same.

There is no “golden age” in our relations with the Chinese Communist Party. We must work with China even while it suffers under a Communist dictatorship. But we should do so with our eyes open and while stripping away the mendacity and the cant."