Extract from Westminster debate on Human Rights in Hong Kong - June 9
Thursday, 10 June 2021 08:18
Mr Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) (LD):...In the years
since we completed and entered into the joint declaration, we have
essentially sent all the wrong signals, and that has brought us to
where we are today. I am genuinely delighted that the Government
have taken the action they have on BNO passport holders. How much
better and stronger might our position be if we had done that at
the point of handover in 1997? That was surely the point at which
we could have sent a signal that we...Request free trial
(Orkney
and Shetland) (LD):...In the years since we completed and
entered into the joint declaration, we have essentially sent all
the wrong signals, and that has brought us to where we are today. I
am genuinely delighted that the Government have taken the action
they have on BNO passport holders. How much better and stronger
might our position be if we had done that at the point of handover
in 1997? That was surely the point at which we could have sent a
signal that we intended to stand with the people of Hong Kong. Our
failure at that time was seen by the Chinese Government as an
indication that we perhaps did not mean the things we said in the
joint declaration.
That is ironic, when one considers that we entered into the joint
declaration because of our experience in relation to the Falkland Islands That was another
instance where we had sent the wrong signals to a despotic regime,
which then thought it could take advantage of that. We tried to
avoid the same thing happening again by entering into the joint
declaration, but we do not seem to have learned the lessons...
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