Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 23 April 2020 to Question 37960 Hong Kong: Politics and Government, what assessment he has made of whether the statement of 17 April 2020 by the Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong that Article 22 of the Hong Kong Basic Law neither applies to the Chinese Liaison Office or the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, is a breach of the terms and the spirit of the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.

Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy is guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration to which the UK is a party. We expect the Chinese authorities to respect and preserve this high degree of autonomy.