UK politicians urge use of sanctions on Chinese, Hong Kong officials

Name: UK offers Hongkongers with BN(O) passports path to citizenship after new national security law
Uploaded: 2020-07-06T20:25:15.000Z
Duration: 1 min 38 s
Description: UK offers Hongkongers with BN(O) passports path to citizenship after new national security law

Conservative Party heavyweights called on British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to use the new ‘Magnitsky Act’ to punish Hong Kong and Chinese officials

No Chinese or Hong Kong officials were on the first batch of 49 names under the sanctions

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Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab making a statement in London on Monday on new UK government powers to levy sanctions against individuals involved in human rights abuse. Photo: UK Parliament’s Parliamentary Recording Unit via AFP

Stuart Lau

Published: 4:25am, 7 Jul 2020Updated: 6:05am, 7 Jul 2020

UK Conservative Party heavyweights called on British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to use the new “Magnitsky Act” on Monday to punish Hong Kong and Chinese officials involved in human rights abuses, and to present a new UK policy on China.

No Chinese or Hong Kong officials were on the first batch of 49 names under the sanctions – ranging from Russian and Saudi officials to Myanmar generals – but Raab was pressed in parliament whether Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor would make it on the next list.

“Whilst having targeted sanctions, the visa bans and the asset freezes on the individuals who may be responsible where the evidence shows that is the case, we got the mechanism to deliver it,” Raab said.

“We will of course look very carefully at any further proposals,” he told fellow members of parliament. “I am not going to pre-empt or prejudge further designations down the track, but we are already working on what the next wave might be.”

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UK offers Hongkongers with BN(O) passports path to citizenship after new national security law

Iain Duncan Smith, former leader of the Conservative Party, asked Raab to put up sanctions against the former colony’s top political class “no matter who these individuals are, no matter how high they go, even if that meant starting with Carrie Lam and her family who I understand have the privilege of British passports”.