International judicial figures, including the former UK attorney general Sir Robert Buckland, backed a legal opinion that says the systematic threats to #HongKong’s judicial independence will continue to intensify, ...theguardian.com/world/2022/may…
... and that the continued presence of overseas judges is being used by the territory’s government as a vote of confidence.
Other signatories include the human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy; Alex Carlile, a former independent reviewer of UK terrorist legislation; Prof Irwin Cotler, a former attorney general of Canada; Guy Mansfield, a former chairman of the UK Bar Council;
the war crimes prosecutor Sir Geoffrey Nice; and Michael Kirby, a former justice of the high court of Australia.
It details how judicial independence in Hong Kong is in headlong retreat, and how the overseas judges have very limited power in practice to reverse the process.
It says China’s National People’s Congress standing committee has been issuing its own interpretations of the territory’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, that the Hong Kong judges have gradually accepted as binding upon them.
The 43-page legal opinion says the Communist party is using these interpretations to pre-empt imminent or pending litigation in Hong Kong.
Pro-Beijing actors, including Hong Kong legislators, threaten to reduce the Hong Kong courts’ jurisdiction of cases if they are not handled in the interest of the Communist party, it adds.
“The overseas judges have no security of tenure and face the permanent threat that cases will be removed to the mainland criminal law system [and as a result] ...
... there has been a trend toward greater judicial deference toward the executive in ways that deviate from established legal principles.”
The legal opinion adds that the continued presence of overseas judges “is of considerable reputational benefit to the Hong Kong government, ...
... which has repeatedly asserted [that] the continued presence of [the judges] amounts to a vote of confidence in the Hong Kong courts as whole”.
It says that in practice the number of appeals reaching the overseas judges is very limited, with many cases being dropped in suspicious and troubling circumstances.
“It is a mark of how serious the situation is back home that so many judicial figures have broken ranks to sign this opinion. I have friends in prison for encouraging people to light candles," said @chungchingkwong.
This is the system that the judges are legitimising. Democracy protesters want these judges out of Hong Kong.”
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From @Nectar_Gan: #China has ordered a nationwide review of school textbooks after illustrations deemed ugly, sexually suggestive and secretly pro-American caused public uproar. edition.cnn.com/2022/05/30/chi…
The news has alarmed some experts and parents who fear the campaign is turning into a political witch hunt and represents an unnecessary tightening of the country's already stringent censorship of cultural publications.
The drawings, found in a series of math textbooks that have been used by Chinese primary schools for nearly a decade, are controversial for various reasons.
"The lack of access in #Xinjiang has also made it pretty much impossible for global clothing brands like Patagonia to figure out if their Chinese suppliers use forced labor." nytimes.com/2022/05/27/bus….
“We saw this escalation of secrecy,” said Matt Dwyer, the Patagonia executive who oversees the privately held outdoor apparel maker’s supply chains.
He spent a year trying to figure out what was going on as media reports detailed widespread repression and forced labor of Uyghur people in Xinjiang.
The German car giant VW has claimed its presence in #Xinjiang has a positive impact despite reports of ongoing human rights abuses. VW is facing accusations of using slave labor in Brazil under the former dictatorship. dw.com/en/china-volks…
In comments published Monday, the CEO of German car manufacturer Volkswagen said the company had been active in Xinjiang for years, but that the "small factory" there was economically "insignificant."
Asked whether VW would end operations in protest, Diess told Handelsblatt: "We could do that. But we won't, because we believe that our presence has a positive impact."
From @WSJ: #China and the U.S. are working to finalize what would be the first face-to-face meeting between their top defense officials on the sidelines of a conference in Singapore in June amid rising tensions over #Taiwan. wsj.com/articles/china…
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said he will travel to the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual defense conference to be held this year June 10-12. The attendance of Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe hasn’t been announced, but he intends to participate in person.
The people cautioned that a meeting between Gen. Wei and Mr. Austin had not been fixed and plans could still change.
Efforts by Switzerland to refresh its free trade agreement with #China have stalled as Bern takes a more critical view of Beijing's human rights record, Swiss newspapers reported on Sunday. channelnewsasia.com/asia/china-swi…
Switzerland has been trying to update the accord to extend tariff reductions to more Swiss products and to include sustainability features. However, Beijing is not engaging in this effort, the newspapers said.
"So far it has not been possible to agree on a common list of topics that should be explored in greater depth," Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said in a statement to newspaper SonntagsBlick.
Pacific Island countries have not signed a region-wide trade and security deal with #China, after a high-level meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his counterparts from 10 Pacific nations was held in Fiji on Monday afternoon. abc.net.au/news/2022-05-3…
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said Pacific nations were united in their approach. "As always, we put consensus first among our countries throughout any discussion on new regional agreements," Mr Bainimarama said at a press conference with Mr Wang.
"Fiji will continue to seek fertile ground for our bilateral relationship. The challenges our people face will only intensify until collective solutions rise to meet them.