Hong Kong Watch submits a sanctions submission to UK government on John Lee to mark the one-year anniversary of his appointment as Hong Kong Chief Executive

To mark the one-year anniversary of the Chinese Government’s appointment of John Lee as Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Watch can reveal that earlier this year we submitted to the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office a sanctions submission outlining the case for John Lee to be sanctioned under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. The submission is accompanied by a cover letter of support from two of Hong Kong Watch’s patrons, leading barristers Sir Geoffrey Nice KC and Baroness Helena Kennedy KC.

The dossier, submitted in January 2023, outlines the evidence against John Lee which Hong Kong Watch believes satisfies the requirements under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime for a foreign official to be the subject of targeted Magnitsky style sanctions, including asset freezes and a travel ban.

It makes the case that John Lee has been, and continues to be, “involved” in activities which, individually and collectively, amount to a serious violation of the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment. This includes his role in suppressing the 2019 anti-extradition protests, ongoing violations of civil and political rights, and human rights violations linked to the National Security Law and sedition laws.

In a cover letter to Hong Kong Watch’s sanctions submission, Hong Kong Watch patrons Sir Geoffrey Nice KC and Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, write:

‘Through his prominent position on the Committee for Safeguarding National Security, Mr Lee has spent much of the last three years personally implementing the National Security Law and the ongoing crackdown on human rights.

The Sino-British Joint Declaration, a legally-binding treaty lodged at the United Nations, is not a “historical document” as some would have us believe, but an active treaty that requires the UK to guarantee the autonomy and the rights of the people of Hong Kong.

Where those rights are infringed upon, autonomy undermined, and freedoms denied, the UK Government should utilise its the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations (2020) as an effective deterrent which increases the cumulative price of individuals continued participation in human rights violations.

This has been the strategy undertaken by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office in regards to the targeting of protestors and opposition figures in Iran and Belarus. In these three cases, the perpetrators of human rights violations have been sanctioned by the UK Government under the Global Human Rights Sanctions regime.

As the Foreign Secretary wrote on 9 December 2022, the UK has “agency and leverage” which should be used “to make a difference” and ensure that “words” are “backed with action”. In the case of Hong Kong, a failure to back statements of concern regarding human rights violations with action to hold those perpetrators responsible is damaging the UK’s standing on the world stage, bringing into question the value of our bilateral agreements to guarantee the autonomy of other people from Cyprus to Hong Kong.

Rather than deterring the People’s Republic of China and their growing challenge to the international rules-based order, the ongoing silence and lack of action only emboldens those officials in Beijing as they seek to undermine our national security at home and the notion of human rights abroad.

This detailed and well-researched submission by Hong Kong Watch outlines the clear case for including the Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations. Such an inclusion would be a concrete first step towards the UK Government holding those Hong Kong and Chinese officials responsible for the ongoing human rights violations and the flagrant disregard for the Sino-British Joint Declaration accountable.’