The newly elected leader of Hong Kong barristers said Thursday that his profession should avoid politics and build closer ties to mainland China, as concerns grow about rule of law in the financial hub.

The Hong Kong Bar Association has been a vocal defender of human rights and its previous leader had criticised a Beijing-imposed national security law, drawing fierce condemnation from Chinese officials.

Western governments have imposed sanctions against officials over the security law, which they say has trashed Hong Kong's freedoms and autonomy, and begun transforming the city into a mirror of the authoritarian mainland.

Victor Dawes, who ran unopposed for the Bar Association's top job, told reporters that the group's top concern was upholding rule of law, which he said was "not a political concept".

"For political topics, that is not something the Bar Association should handle or discuss."

In 2019, the professional group had actively opposed an unpopular extradition bill, a bill that sparked Hong Kong's largest and most violent democracy protests in decades.

Beijing later imposed the national security law that quashed dissent and reshaped the city's legal landscape.

Dawes said he understood why some people would be pessimistic about the city's rule of law, but said barristers still had a key role to play.

"Personally I don't believe the rule of law is dead," he said.

Dawes, as well as two other barristers running for deputy spots, have been described in local press as moderates who rarely comment on social issues.

Asked whether his candidacy was a compromise option to mollify Beijing, Dawes said that he and his two colleagues had not been "encouraged or had any support from the central authorities" in their decision to run.

The professional body should seize opportunities to develop business in mainland China and mend ties with stakeholders, Dawes said, without giving specific proposals.

Last year, Bar Association chair Paul Harris was criticised as a "rat in the street" by People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, after he suggested the government should amend security laws to ensure human rights were protected.

Dawes said the national security law was still "in its early days" and local courts should be given time to interpret and clarify the law.

Despite its roots in the British colonial tradition, the Bar Association had enjoyed warm relations with mainland officials and would be invited to visit Beijing every year — a practice which has lapsed in recent years.

Dawes said Thursday the barristers' group would "definitely want to go to Beijing" if invited.

EU lawmakers call for sanctions on Hong Kong officials
Strasbourg, France (AFP) Jan 20, 2022 –

The European Parliament on Thursday urged EU member states to impose sanctions on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, and seven other senior officials, over the "ongoing human rights crackdown" in the territory.

EU lawmakers approved the appeal in a non-binding resolution by a majority of 585 votes in favour to 46 against.

EU sanctions need to be agreed with unanimity by the bloc's 27 members states and so far there has not been a consensus over Hong Kong.

The resolution said the parliament "condemns in the strongest terms the fact that freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of the press are as severely restricted in Hong Kong as they are in China".

Lawmakers "deplored the political persecution to which many journalists who are now in exile or in prison have been subjected".

The resolution called for top officials — Carrie Lam, Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, Xia Baolong, Zhang Xiaoming, Luo Huining, Zheng Yanxiong, Chris Tang Ping-keung and John Lee Ka-chiu — to be added to the EU's human rights sanctions regime.

It also demanded that the bloc's institution's "agree to draw up a list of companies which should be /rlsubject to sanctions and investment bans for their complicity in the ongoing human rights crackdown in Hong Kong".

Xia Baolong, Zang Xiaoming, Luo Huining and Zeng Yanxiong are high-ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party running the central government's liason office in Hong Kong and a state security agency for the territory.

The legislators also called on the EU to review its "support for Hong Kong's seat at the World Trade Organization" and an agreement reached with Hong Kong over customs cooperation.

They said the EU needed to take into account the rights situation in Hong Kong before any moves to push on with ratifying a frozen investment deal reached with China.