UK Moves to Revive Extradition Deal With Hong Kong, Sparking Political Backlash

The UK government is quietly working to reinstate its extradition agreement with Hong Kong, five years after suspending it over serious concerns about China’s crackdown on freedoms in the city.

According to documents filed on July 17, the Home Office has asked Parliament to greenlight the changes — a move followed by a letter to Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp the next day. Security Minister Dan Jarvis defended the move, saying, “It is in our national interest to have effective extradition relationships to prevent criminals from evading justice and the UK becoming a haven for criminals.”

But not everyone is convinced. Conservative MP Alicia Kearns — who shared the letter on X — blasted the plan, calling it “morally indefensible.” She warned that Hong Kong, once a semi-autonomous region with British ties, has now been reshaped into a surveillance state under China’s tight grip.

The extradition agreement with Hong Kong was originally suspended in 2020, shortly after China imposed a sweeping national security law that gutted basic civil liberties. The law criminalized a wide array of dissent under charges like “treason,” “espionage,” and “external interference,” prompting mass arrests of pro-democracy activists.

Things got worse this year when Hong Kong’s lawmakers approved a second law — Article 23 — expanding the government’s power even further under the same pretext of safeguarding national security. Officials claimed the new law would target only “a very small minority,” but critics saw it as another tool to silence opposition.

Back in 2020, the UK, along with Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and the US, all suspended extradition ties with Hong Kong in protest. Now, London’s apparent change of heart is raising eyebrows.

Jarvis also revealed the UK plans to restore extradition frameworks with Chile and Zimbabwe, with all cases to be considered individually. But for many watching the situation in Hong Kong, that’s little reassurance.

“The Chinese Communist Party has turned Hong Kong into a surveillance state where freedom of expression, rule of law, and basic civil liberties are systematically dismantled,” Kearns wrote.

With input from Al Jazeera