Having failed to overcome their ideological bigotry against China and their hatred of the National Security Law in effect in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the China hawks in London have no qualms about undermining Hong Kong’s long-established and widely recognized judicial independence by interfering in its prosecutorial process. 

Overwhelmed by their hatred of the National Security Law, the likes of British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab didn’t bother to do a simple fact check before they launched a squalid campaign against British Queen’s Counsel David Perry, with the purpose of forcing him to decline the task of prosecuting a group of Hong Kong alleged offenders who have big-name allies in Washington. 

“I don’t understand how anyone of good conscience...would take a case where they will have to apply the national security legislation at the behest of the authorities in Beijing...,” Raab said in an interview with British media. The fact is, the case has nothing to do with the national security legislation or any offenses relating to national security; the defendants were charged with two offenses under the Public Order Ordinance for organizing and participating in an unauthorized assembly on Aug 18, 2019 — long before the promulgation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong on June 30, 2020. 

How could a foreign minister commenting on the issues of another jurisdiction be so ignorant of the simple fact in question? It seems more likely that Raab deliberately twisted the facts to suit his China-bashing campaign.

Dancing to the tune of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Raab and other like-minded British politicians launched a crusade against China and its Hong Kong SAR. Their “accomplishments” include a ban on the use of Chinese tech giant Huawei’s products in the United Kingdom’s new 5G network, the suspension of the UK-Hong Kong fugitive offender surrender agreement, and now pressuring Perry into withdrawing from the Hong Kong criminal case. But they failed to foil the long-established arrangement whereby British judges sit on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal as non-permanent judges, another of their attempts to undermine the reputation of Hong Kong’s judiciary and rule of law. 

The Brazilian government has reportedly become the first in the world to backtrack on its ban on Huawei products after the exit of the Trump administration. It wouldn’t be wise for London policymakers to continue with their meaningless anti-China crusade, for it is not in the UK’s interest.