LONDON (AP) 鈥� Britain is withdrawing its judges from Hong Kong鈥檚 top court, with the government saying Wednesday that remaining would 鈥渓egitimize oppression.鈥�
British judges have sat on the court since the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.
A national security law was imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, prompting complaints that Beijing was eroding the autonomy that had been promised when the former British colony returned to China in 1997 鈥� and ruining its status as a trade and financial center.
Pro-democracy figures have been imprisoned. They include Jimmy Lai, the 74-year-old former publisher of the Apple Daily newspaper, which shut down under government pressure, and organizers of candlelight memorials of the party鈥檚 deadly 1989 crackdown on a pro-democracy movement.
The government said it was 鈥渘o longer tenable for serving U.K. judges鈥� to sit on the Court of Final Appeal because of the increasingly oppressive laws enacted by China.
The two British judges on the court submitted their resignations on Wednesday.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says that 鈥渟ince the National Security Law was imposed, authorities have cracked down on free speech, the free press and free association. 鈥�
鈥淭he situation has reached a tipping point where it is no longer tenable for British judges to sit on Hong Kong鈥檚 leading court, and would risk legitimizing oppression,鈥� Truss said.
She said the decision to pull British judges out out after many years in Hong Kong was taken by the British government in consultation with the head of the U.K. Supreme Court.
Conservative lawmaker Iain Duncan Smith, a longtime critic of the government in Beijing said 鈥渢he government has done the right thing here, and not a minute too soon.鈥�
He said the presence of British judges was 鈥渓ending legitimacy to a regime hellbent on undermining our way of life.鈥�
The Associated Press
