Hong Kong treasury minister Christopher Hui’s visit to promote business ties in the UK has been met by protesters who said Britain should not welcome “human rights violators.”
In a statement released on Wednesday morning, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau said Hui, who embarked on a trip to Belgium and the UK on April 13, had discussed “issues of mutual concern” with three senior British ministers in a meeting in London on Tuesday.
The attending UK officials were Minister of State in the Department for Business and Trade Dominic Johnson, the Minister of State (Indo-Pacific), Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and the Economic Secretary to the HM Treasury Andrew Griffith.
Earlier this year, Trevelyan met with detained pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s legal team in the UK, prompting an angry response from the Hong Kong government.
Hui also paid a courtesy call to China’s ambassador to the UK Zheng Zeguang, and delivered speeches to Hong Kong Association, a business group that promotes trades between Hong Kong and the UK, and a UK think tank, Asia House, that focuses on Hong Kong’s green finance development on Tuesday, the statement read.
NGO protest
A number of NGOs concerned with Hong Kong’s human right situation expressed their opposition to Hui’s meeting with UK ministers.
On Monday, a group of protesters rallied against the Hong Kong minster’s visit outside London’s Guildhall, while Hui was attending the Innovate Finance Global Summit inside the building.
The protesters held signs that read “Free Hong Kong Political Prisoners Rallies” and “Fight with Hong Kong.”
Megan Khoo of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation said during the rally that it was “absolutely ludicrous” that Hui could still speak at the finance summit after the committee had spent a month calling on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to revoke the Hong Kong officials’ invitation to the UK.
“The [Chinese Communist Party]’s human rights violators have no place in British business, government or culture,” Khoo wrote on her Twitter.
At the rally, Benedict Rogers, the co-founder of Hong Kong Watch, urged Hong Kong to unblock the pension funds of emigrants holding British National Overseas (BNO) passports.
On Monday, Hong Kong’s pension body had fired back at a Wall Street Journal op-ed that claimed the assets of BNO passport holders were being held “hostage.”
Another NGO, Hong Kong Democracy Council, also tweeted that it was “disappointed” in the UK officials who met Hui, who it called a “representative of the Hong Kong government oppressing our people.”
Meanwhile, a widely shared video on Twitter showed some Hong Kong protesters attempting to block two black cars on a London street on Monday before getting into a scuffle with a man who tried to push them off the road.
US-backed outlet Voice of America reported on Tuesday that the incident took part on Princes Street, which was 200 metres away from the Guildhall. Protesters suspected that some Hong Kong officials, including Hui, were in the two cars, the outlet said.
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