Confusion reigns over new UK extradition laws

The British government’s decision to amend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong has been greeted with shock and confusion among the many activists hiding in the UK to escape prosecution in Hong Kong.

Whitehall announced last week that it was going to scrap Hong Kong off its extradition list and in future handle all extradition applications on a case-by-case basis. The Home Office said it was amending legislation to enable co-operation between the UK and Hong Kong on matters of extradition. The UK signed an extradition treaty with Hong Kong in 1997, but it was suspended in 2020 after mass demonstrations forced the Hong Kong SAR Government to withdraw a bill that would allow extradition between Hong Kong and Taiwan, Macau and the Chinese mainland.

There was an immediate reaction to the Home Office announcement from Hong Kong activists and politicians in the UK, calling the proposal a betrayal. They could see their safe haven eroding away and even abandonment by their saviours. The so-called pro-democracy group, Hong Kong Watch said the plan was a “reckless move which will endanger many pro-democracy activists now living in the UK.”

The UK’s Home Office minister Dan Jarvis reckons some 160,000 Hong Kongers have emigrated to the UK since 2021. However, it is believed that many are having assimilation problems, finding work at levels they are accustomed to and higher taxation.

Jarvis defends the new proposed legislation saying it is merely a necessary legal step to allow the “severing of ties.” He wrote to parliamentarians earlier mentioning that even if there were strong reasons for the extradition of fugitives to Hong Kong, the current regulations would not allow this to be done, and it was necessary to make amendments to allow the UK side to cooperate with these non-treaty partners on a case-by-case basis.

The shadow minister for national security Alicia Kearns, in a letter riddled with untruths and false information to Jarvis, claimed that “many Hongkongers arrested for protest were given false violent convictions as a method of opposing dissent …” and that “protections should be put in place to identify and reject false charges made against the activists”.

Kearns should know better. The charges against the renegade activists are real and of a criminal nature. They are fleeing prosecution and trial by a common law court similar to the UK and recognized as one of the fairest in the world. Kearns is effectively harbouring criminals fleeing justice.

Since the handover in 1997 Hong Kong has signed up extradition treaties with 17 countries of which eight, including Australia, UK, US and New Zealand, suspended the agreement after Hong Kong introduced its new national security laws.

Missing from that round of agreements were Taiwan, Macau and the Chinese mainland.

There was no hurry until early 2018 when 19-year-old Hong Kong resident Chan Tong-kai murdered his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan, then returned to Hong Kong where he admitted to police that he had killed his girlfriend. But the police were unable to charge him for murder or extradite him to Taiwan because no agreement was in place at the time. Hong Kong Legislators felt the loophole had to be fixed and introduced the Extradition 2019 bill.

Anti-China propogandists seized the opportunity and quickly spread rumours that anyone committing a crime in Hong Kong could be tried in China. Poppycock! Let logic prevail. First, the two places have different legal systems: Hong Kong enjoys the Common Law system practiced in all British commonwealth countries and the US while China practices the civil law system practiced in the rest of the world. [In civil law jurisdictions, courts base their decisions on the interpretation and application of statutes and codes. Judges have a more limited role in shaping the law compared to their counterparts in common law jurisdictions. In common law jurisdictions, judges play a vital role in shaping the law through their interpretation of legal precedents.] The bill was to facilitate the extradition of a person who commits a crime and flees to another country to be returned to the country where the offence took place to stand trial. But the seeds of doubt had been sown, and masses of demonstrators took to the streets demanding that the proposal be dropped. They won.

At the time the bill was introduced, it was estimated there were some 300 fugitives from the mainland living in Hong Kong without fear of being returned to the mainland for trial.

In the UK there can be no doubt that the subject will be widely debated in the Commons and the House of Lords where politicians have already picked sides, thanks to the lobbying efforts by anti-Hong Kong/China groups.

Mark Pinkstone

** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **

Hong Kong is facing a dilemma as more locals are spending their dollars outside of the city than what the visitors are bringing in.

Relaxed visa/permit restrictions for locals and foreign residents alike is making it easier for travel to the mainland while inbound traffic crossing the boundary is low budget and spending less on accommodation and food.

Tourism is an important pillar for Hong Kong’s economy. In pre-COVID times, tourism accounted for about four per cent of the territory’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provided for about six per cent of total employment.

In Hong Kong’s heydays, the city saw about 65 million tourists in 2018, of which 51 million came from the mainland. It was boom time for retailers and restaurants. Long queues of mainland shoppers would line the streets along Canton Road and elsewhere waiting to buy luxury items from Gucci, Prada, Tiffany’s and other high-end stores which set up shop in Hong Kong to tap this lucrative market.

Today many restaurants and retail outlets are closing down, especially in the boundary towns of Sheung Shui and Yuen Long. The market is no longer there, and high rental costs make it almost impossible to survive.

During the 2025/2026 festive season, Hong Kong saw a 25.6 per cent rise in inbound trips on New Year’s Day 2026 (664,338 trips), but this was still countered by a massive 515,954 outbound exits on the same day.

Winston Yeung, chair of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants & Related Trades, told local media that business was sluggish during the Christmas holiday, with some restaurant owners calling it “the slowest business at Christmas over the past 10 years.”

Unfortunately, the local market is not propping up the tourism outlets. Instead, the locals are traveling in large numbers to Shenzhen and Macau and other parts of China for day trips or extended holidays, thereby providing a leakage in the local economy.

While Hong Kong received more than an estimated 45 million visitors last year, more than about 100 million departures were recorded by the Immigration Department of locals leaving Hong Kong by plane, train or bus mainly to the mainland (75 per cent), and to other major Asian destinations.

Hong Kong has 320 hotels offering 92,907 rooms, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Despite mainlanders’ choice of more budget accommodation, occupancy rates for the hotel industry remained high at 88 per cent last year. The major hotels are not affected by the change in mainlanders’ preferences as they rely more on the affluent international tourist, visiting Hong Kong for business, conventions or holidays.

Property developer, Caldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) says Hong Kong’s hospitality market currently presents various investment-ready assets including rare investment opportunities for upper upscale and luxury hotels. These high-end properties are particularly attractive due to their resilience, as they are less reliant on Chinese group travelers and enjoy sustained spending power among affluent individual travelers and international visitors. This makes them attractive for investors seeking stable returns in a dynamic market.

To encourage locals to spend more at home and at the same time provide a bonus for tourists, Hong Kong has organised a series of mega events, many held in the new sports stadium on the site of the old Kai Tak airport in Kowloon. Traditional events in 2026 will include the French May Arts festival in March, Hong Kong Book Fair in July, Hong Kong performing Arts Expo in October, the World Snooker Grand Prix in February, and, of course, the international dragon boat races in June.

Blockbusters will include BlackPink World tour in January, the Hong Kong marathon, which draws in runners and their supports from around the world, and the Hong Kong Tennis Open also in January.

That is good for the inbound and outbound tourists alike. But more needs to be done to tip the tourism scales to a surplus for Hong Kong’s economy to grow at a faster pace. As the saying goes charity starts at home, so it is up to us as local residents who have reaped the benefits of the city to spend more in local restaurants and retail outlets than spend it elsewhere. Support local enterprises. After all, the restaurants in Hong Kong are ranked among the best in the world and are tax free as against a value-added tax applied to restaurants and shops in the mainland.