Pompeo, meeting Hong Kong democrat, airs concerns on extraditions

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WASHINGTON, May 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on
Thursday voiced concern over Hong Kong’s plans to allow extraditions to the
Chinese mainland as he met with the city’s pre-eminent pro-democracy leader.

The top US diplomat discussed the controversial extradition bill during
talks in Washington with a delegation headed by Martin Lee, a founder of Hong
Kong’s opposition Democratic Party.

Pompeo “expressed concern about the Hong Kong government’s proposed
amendments to the Fugitive Ordinance law, which threaten Hong Kong’s rule of
law,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement after
the meeting.

“He also expressed support for Hong Kong’s longstanding protections of
human rights, fundamental freedoms and democratic values, which are
guaranteed under the Basic Law,” she said.

She was referring to the law that came into effect when Britain handed
control of its colony in 1997 to China, which promised a separate political
system in the international financial hub that includes greater freedoms.

The extradition plan recently led to scuffles inside Hong Kong’s
legislature, with critics saying it would mark a significant blow to the
city’s semi-autonomous status and make it less attractive to foreign
investors.

Hong Kong’s government is pushing the bill that would allow case-by-case
extraditions to any jurisdictions with which it does not already have an
agreed treaty — including mainland China, Macau and Taiwan.

Historically Hong Kong has balked at mainland extraditions because of the
opacity of China’s criminal justice system and its liberal use of the death
penalty.

Lee has frequently taken his message overseas. In 2014, China voiced anger
after then US vice president Joe Biden met Lee and reiterated US
“longstanding support for democracy in Hong Kong.”

In an opinion piece this week in The Washington Post, Lee warned that the
extradition law could make Americans and other foreigners “potential hostages
to extradition claims driven by the political agenda of Beijing.”

“The time for the world to act to protect Hong Kong’s free society and
legal system is now — not when Hong Kong people and others are taken to be
jailed in China,” he wrote.

A recent report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an
advisory body set up by the US Congress, warned that the extradition bill
posed “serious” security risks to the estimated 85,000 US citizens in Hong
Kong.