Hong Kong leader condemns UK criticism over jailed activists

Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam leaves 10 Downing Street after a meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May in London, yesterday

Hong Kong’s leader has condemned criticism from British politicians over the city’s recent jailing of student activists, saying such comments are unfair and “disrespectful.”

Addressing a business dinner in London yesterday [Macau time], Carrie Lam said she was “extremely disturbed” to hear criticism of Hong Kong’s judicial independence from British politicians and commentators.

Tens of thousands in the Chinese city protested after a court overturned an earlier ruling to imprison three young pro-democracy protest leaders in August. The case raised fears Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed government was clamping down on the opposition, and international politicians from Britain and elsewhere called it “an outrageous miscarriage of justice.”

Lam, who took office in July, insisted that is underpinned by a strong belief in the rule of law. The leader was in London for a three-day visit and met British Prime Minister Theresa May in her Downing Street office last night.

Carrie Lam, a divisive career civil servant, was selected as Hong Kong’s next chief executive by a Beijing-dominated committee, presaging further tensions between the semi-autonomous territory and the Chinese government.  Lam in March secured 777 votes from the 1,194-member selection committee, which is composed of businesspeople, politicians and civic leaders who are overwhelmingly loyal to Beijing.  John Tsang, a former finance secretary who had far more public support but was not favoured by the Chinese government, obtained 365 votes. Woo Kwok-hing, a retired judge and an independent third candidate, won 21. The manner of Ms Lam’s selection “highlights the failure of the democracy movement in Hong Kong and fears about the territory losing the autonomy it was promised for 50 years by Beijing” when it took control of the former British colony in 1997, the Financial Times said at the time.  MDT/AP