Two British judges resigned from Hong Kong's supreme court in rejection of China's advance

London announced on Wednesday that two British judges will no longer participate in the highest judicial instance in Hong Kong, because of their opposition to the national security law that China applies to this autonomous territory and former colony of the United Kingdom.

“Supreme Court judges cannot continue to hold their positions in Hong Kong without appearing to support an administration that has moved away from the values of political freedom and freedom of expression,” said the president of the Supreme Court, Robert Reed, announcing his retirement and that of Vice President Patrick Hodge “with immediate effect” of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.

The British authorities, increasingly confronted with Beijing over its treatment of Hong Kong, have in the past denounced that the 2020 security law does not respect the independence agreed by both parties when the United Kingdom returned China to the sovereignty of the former colony in 1997.

This agreement provides for British judges to hold non-permanent posts in the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, the highest court in the territory.

Retired judges from the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada also participate.

In total, eight of the twelve non-permanent foreign judges are British, including those on the Supreme Court, and it was unknown on Wednesday whether the others will follow Reed and Hodge's example.

Reacting to her resignation, British Foreign Minister Liz Truss considered that “the situation has reached a point where it is untenable for British judges to be part of the main court in Hong Kong”. And he denounced that there has been “a systematic erosion of freedom and democracy” in the territory under Chinese sovereignty.

China has been eroding Hong Kong's political, legal and social institutions in recent years. These efforts include the passage of the National Security Law in 2020 and changes to the electoral system that, in practice, have eliminated political opposition in the territory.

Beijing has been accused of using the law to erase the autonomy promised when Hong Kong was returned to China as a “special administrative region”, and of ruining its position as a financial and commercial center.

The law has been used to imprison Hong Kong's pro-democracy leaders. This is the case of Jimmy Lai, 74, former owner of the Apple Daily newspaper, which closed under pressure from the government, as well as organizers of vigils in memory of the deadly repression ordered in 1989 by the ruling party against a pro-democracy movement.

(With information from AFP and AP)

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