Letter in today’s Financial Times – why we must stand together behind the Hongkongers fighting for their freedom and push for targeted sanctions against the true aggressors — the authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Nov 20, 2020 | News

Financial Times: Letter: Call for targeted sanctions against China aggression

From Lord Shinkwin, Lord Alton of Liverpool and Geraint Davies MP, Houses of Parliament, London SW1

It was disturbing to read the letter “Beijing’s intervention is a crisis Hong Kong created” (November 18), where the author appears to be blaming the hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers, who have asked for nothing but the rights and freedoms to which they are entitled, for their own oppression. 

For months, the citizens of Hong Kong have been standing up for the rights legally granted to them under the UN recognised Sino-British Joint Declaration. To describe the participants in this vast movement for liberty and democracy as “rioters” is a gross inaccuracy. Peaceful protests were escalated by a brutal Hong Kong police force and the issue further exacerbated by Hong Kong authorities displaying utter contempt for democratic norms. 

The world cannot and should not stand by and allow the totalitarian Chinese Communist party to run rampant over human rights. Instead, we must stand together behind the Hongkongers fighting for their freedom and push for targeted sanctions against the true aggressors — the authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Lord Shinkwin Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong 

Lord Alton of Liverpool Vice-Chair 

Geraint Davies MP Vice-Chair 

Houses of Parliament, London SW1, UK

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