bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Finbarr Bermingham

The European Parliament will demand that the EU “revoke Hong Kong’s special customs treatment” and review the status of its economic and trade office in Brussels over a long-running national security trial that last week saw 45 opposition figures jailed for between four and 10 years.
In a resolution obtained by the Post, lawmakers will also renew calls for “targeted sanctions” on Hong Kong’s political leaders, including Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu.
The non-binding resolution will be debated in the chamber on Wednesday evening before a vote on Thursday.
It urges EU member states to “file an International Court of Justice case against China’s decision to impose the national security law” on Hong Kong.
The US revoked Hong Kong’s special status in 2020 due to the implementation of the national security law in the city. Hong Kong previously enjoyed lower trade tariffs and a separate customs framework in its dealings with the US.
The European Parliament resolution is expected to be passed by a clear majority.
But adoption would not change EU policy or oblige the European Commission, the executive arm, to act on the resolution.
Instead, it would be a policy recommendation for the bloc’s other institutions – the commission and the European Council, comprising the 27 member states.
While the union has been critical of Hong Kong government policy, it has yet to sanction any officials. Its official position has not changed since July 2020, when its 27 foreign ministers responded to the imposition of the national security law.
This action included freezing all new negotiations with the city’s government and restricting the export of “specific sensitive equipment and technologies” that could be used “for internal repression, the interception of internal communications or cybersurveillance” in Hong Kong.


The sentencing last week of activists on charges of subversion brought to a close the city’s biggest and longest-running national security trial.
It had initially involved a group of 47 accused of plotting to ride on the momentum of the 2019 anti-government protests to win control of the Legislative Council and bring down the government.
More than two-thirds of the 45 convicted defendants had been on remand since March 2021, effectively reducing the remaining length of their prison term.
Four former lawmakers, including Claudia Mo Man-ching, 67, received the shortest jail term of four years and two months, and are expected to complete their sentences as early as April next year. Former legal academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting received the stiffest sentence, and may need to spend another eight years behind bars.
The resolution also focused on the ongoing trial of former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who returned to the witness box on Wednesday for his fifth day of testimony on his national security charges.
Lai, 76, had denied two charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the 2020 national security law, as well as a third count of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications in breach of colonial-era legislation.
He is accused of trying to influence foreign government policies on Hong Kong and mainland China through relationships with politicians and activists in the US, Britain and Taiwan.
He is also accused of pressuring aides at Apple Daily, the news outlet he founded, to create a sanctions list for the US government following the implementation of the national security law in 2020.
The central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong has voiced its “firm support” for the trials and condemned the US and other countries for “attacks” against the city’s judicial system.




Beijing’s national security office in the city also said that external forces and those who aimed to destabilise Hong Kong had tried to intervene in the independent judgment of the local judiciary through various means since the trials started, and it vowed to support the city to implement the national security law.
The parliament’s resolution describes the charges as “trumped up” and urges the “Hong Kong government to immediately and unconditionally release all pro-democracy activists including Lai”.
It calls on the EU to establish a “legal defence fund in support of democracy activists in Hong Kong and for the EU Office in Hong Kong to intensify prison visits and trial observation”.
Last week, the EU’s diplomatic arm, the European External Action Service, described the sentencing as “another unprecedented blow against fundamental freedoms, democratic participation and pluralism in Hong Kong”.
“The EU remains deeply concerned about the politically motivated prosecution of the defendants who are being punished, in many cases with harsh prison terms, for peaceful political activity that should be legitimate in any political system that respects basic democratic principles,” it said.
“The EU, in cooperation with its member states, will continue to closely monitor the human rights situation and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong.”
In response, the Chinese mission to the EU said: “Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs that brook no external interference.”
“It is a basic principle of a law-based society that laws must be observed and lawbreakers be held accountable. No one should be allowed to use ‘democracy’ as a pretext to engage in unlawful criminal activities and attempt to escape justice,” the mission said.


Europe’s battery crisis a humiliating reminder of China’s EV dominance

European Parliament backs call for Hong Kong to lose special trading status

Is the EU hatching a new weapon for dealing with Chinese overcapacity?

Will the EU and China form a united front against Trump’s tariff offensive?

China-EU relations

Call from European Parliament to cancel Hong Kong’s customs status over national security law trial

The European Parliament will vote on a resolution to review the status of Hong Kong’s trade office in the EU. Photo: AFP

Hong Kong 47: first appeals filed in city’s largest national security case

Activist Owen Chow was given the second-longest jail sentence of seven years and nine months. Photo: Facebook

Former Democratic Party lawmaker Helena Wong is among the four opposition figures appealing her sentence. Photo: Elson Li

Beijing slams Western threats of sanctions over jailing of 45 activists in Hong Kong

Police officers are stationed outside the court during the sentencing of 45 former opposition camp members. Photo: Elson Li

Beijing’s national security arm in Hong Kong has hit out against threats of sanctions from Western countries over the sentencing of 45 opposition figures. Photo: David Wong

Hong Kong 47 and their jail time after longest national security trial

Hong Kong Coalition

Jimmy Lai wanted Trump to stop Hong Kong national security law with ‘call to Xi’ – as it happened

Police outside West Kowloon Court as Jimmy Lai’s trial resumes. Photo: Dickson Lee

News

China

Diplomacy

Hong Kong

Politics

Lawmakers will vote on a resolution that includes proposal for ‘targeted sanctions’ on city’s leaders


Lawmakers will vote on a resolution that includes proposal for ‘targeted sanctions’ on city’s leaders.


Exclusive | Call from European Parliament to cancel Hong Kong’s customs status over national security law trial

Lawmakers will vote on a resolution that includes proposal for ‘targeted sanctions’ on city’s leaders