Britain too consumed by 'Brexit chaos' to live up to promise to protect Hong Kong, says leading activist Joshua Wong

The UK government has been too distracted by the “chaos of Brexit” to live up to the pledges it made to protect freedom and democracy in its former colony of Hong Kong, one of the city’s most prominent activists has charged.

“The new prime minister should stand up and show support for Hong Kong democratisation. That’s the promise the UK made towards Hong Kong,” said Joshua Wong, 22, who for the past five years has been a poster child of the city’s peaceful civil resistance movement against Beijing’s rule.

Mass rallies against a controversial new extradition law have plunged Hong Kong into its biggest political crisis since its handover to China in 1997, but while the US and Germany have threatened the government with serious consequences, the UK has been largely absent from the debate, he argued.

"What we ask for is freedom and free elections. Under the Sino-British joint declaration, the UK government should take a more progressive and active role - not to keep its distance towards activists and Hong Kong citizens,” Mr Wong told the Telegraph in an interview.

At the least the UK should “strongly condemn how the Hong Kong government used rubber bullets to shoot towards peaceful activists,” he said.

Hong Kong’s parliament met today for the first time since the protests began, with many opposition politicians’ expressing outrage at the city’s heavy-handed treatment of protesters.

The city of seven million is still reeling from violent scenes last Wednesday when riot police fired on unarmed demonstrators with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Anger has been fuelled by a viral video that shows a near stampede when a crowd was pushed back by tear gas towards a building whose doors were locked, preventing their entry.

In a tense session, opposition legislators wearing black, the adopted colour of the protests, grilled John Lee, Hong Kong’s head of security, over the reasons for the clashes.

Au Nok-hin, a pro-democracy politician, accused police officers of aiming “at the heads of unarmed demonstrators when they fired,” revealing that the injured included a driver of a press vehicle who was shot in the head and a protester who was shot in the eye.

“Given that large-scale demonstrations may be triggered at any moment, will the government undertake that when a similar demonstration takes place again, police officers will not aim at the upper bodies?” he demanded.

Police accountability is one of five main demands that protests groups have issued in an ultimatum that expires at 5pm on Thursday.

Hong Kong is bracing for more rallies and protest action if the demands, which include the full retraction of the bill and the resignation of Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam, are not met.

Protesters have also turned their anger on two British police officers who they claim were seen on the streets at the time of the violence. The Telegraph could not independently verify the accusations and the Hong Kong police did not respond to enquiries.

Prime Minister Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, have expressed their concern at the extradition law, “but the UK government does not have any concrete follow-up arrangement at all,” claimed Mr Wong, adding that Britain had a “unique role” to play in standing up for Hong Kong and its legal system.

The Sino-British independence declaration of 1984 sets out a “one country, two systems” principle that guarantees that Beijing’s communism will not be forced on Hong Kong and the city’s capitalist system and way of life will be preserved until 2047.

The activist urged Mrs May and world leaders at next week’s G20 summit in Japan to request that Xi Jinping, China’s president “let Hong Kong have democracy and not to erode Hong Kong’s freedoms.”

Washington has already pledged to raise the Hong Kong protests in a bilateral meeting between President Xi and US President Donald Trump.

A spokesman for Mrs May said on Monday that she would raise the issue with Hu Chunhua, China’s vice premier, during his visit to London.

“It’s vital that extradition arrangements in Hong Kong are in line with the rights and freedoms set down in the Sino-British joint declaration,” the spokesman said.

Back in Hong Kong, Mr Wong said he would not define the suspension of the bill after public protests as a victory but a “symbolic achievement.”

The recent protests had awakened a generation of millennial “dissidents” to a new form of grassroots democracy through acts of civil disobedience, he said.

Although the appointment of Hong Kong’s government and ruler were now manipulated by Beijing, the city’s citizens could push their democratic agenda by occupying the streets and besieging government buildings, he argued.

“Our opponent, Beijing, does not let Hong Kong have free elections..but if they want to make Hong Kong worse through any legislative process, people [now] realise that they can easily shut down the government.”