I believe Hong Kong immigrants in the United Kingdom are paying a lot of attention to the upcoming UK General Election. Over 100,000 Hong Kong people have immigrated to the UK in the past few years. This will be the first time in their lives that they can directly participate in deciding who leads their new country. Obviously, the stance of each political party on Hong Kong affairs will influence how they vote.

On May 30th, the court in Hong Kong delivered a verdict on the Hong Kong pro-democracy primary election case. In July 2020, the pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong organized a primary election to select candidates for the Legislative Council elections that were scheduled to take place two months later. The primary election saw the participation of 610,000 Hong Kong residents. However, the Hong Kong government later terminated the elections citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason. Subsequently, they arrested the candidates involved on charges of “subversion of state power,” including leaders of six political parties, leaders of unions and ethnic minority groups, independent candidates in their 20s, and a reputable law professor from the University of Hong Kong who was responsible for coordinating the primary election.

In any democratic country, it is common for opposition parties to hold primary elections where supporters choose candidates to challenge the ruling party in official elections. However, it appears that the judges in Hong Kong have taken a unique approach in defining this matter as a criminal offence. The judges argued that in this primary election, the candidates had publicly stated they would veto the government’s proposed budget to force the government to answer the call by the Hong Kong people to reform the political system as promised by Beijing and to investigate cases of police brutality in 2019. They deemed that the indiscriminate vetoing of the budgets or public expenditure introduced was a plan to paralyze the government, constituting elements of the charge of “seriously interfering, obstructing, or undermining the functions of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government in accordance with the law.”

As UK voters from Hong Kong, we hope that the future elected UK government will uphold the dignity of our proud common law system, which serves to safeguard justice and should not be used as a tool for suppressing freedom by authoritarian regimes. With Beijing stripping away Hong Kong’s judicial independence, there is concern about whether Hong Kong can continue to be recognized as a common law jurisdiction. We all hope that the new UK government will make some form of statement on this matter.

* Christopher is based in Hong Kong and is a member of the Lib Dems Overseas. (We have anonymised this author due to restrictions imposed in Hong Kong via the National Security Law.)