British and Overseas Judges: Hong Kong Debate
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Alyn Smith
Main Page: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)Department Debates - View all Alyn Smith's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
British and Overseas Judges: Hong Kong
Alyn Smith Excerpts(2 years, 1 month ago)
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Alyn Smith (Stirling) (SNP)
It is a pleasure to serve, Ms Rees. I always think, when I am considering my speeches, that nobody ever criticised a speech for being too short, but I think I can excel myself today.
I am a solicitor by trade. I trained with Clifford Chance, which has significant interests in Hong Kong, so I am aware that this is complicated; it is not a black-and-white issue. However, in the 9 June 2021 debate on this subject, I said:
“Speaking of dubious legality, UK judges should absolutely withdraw from the Hong Kong judicial system. They are lending a veneer of credibility and respectability to a system that simply does not merit it.—[Official Report, 9 June 2021; Vol. 696, c. 412WH.]
I did not say that lightly at the time.
I obviously welcome the UK Government's indication that the judges should withdraw, but I do so with much sadness because it is an admission that staying put and trying to be a mediating influence has failed. It sounds the death knell of “one country, two systems” and the failure of the Sino-British agreement, which is a terrible, humiliating failure of statecraft. We cannot abandon the people of Hong Kong; we remain a guarantor of their rights. So the withdrawal is welcome, in that we should not give a veneer of respectability to a system that does not merit it, but saddening in that it is an admission of defeat. This is not the end of the story.
I have been struck by hon. Members’ comments. I lend my congratulations to the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), who has been at the forefront of this. This cannot be the end of the story. We remain bound to the people of Hong Kong; we remain bound to the people of China. There are grievous human rights abuses going on in Hong Kong and in China. This is not for a second the last time that we will be discussing human rights in Hong Kong and China, but I do welcome today’s decision.