{"id":43320,"date":"2021-12-20T13:05:53","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T21:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=43320"},"modified":"2021-12-20T16:06:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T00:06:12","slug":"joint-statement-on-hong-kong-legislative-council-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=43320","title":{"rendered":"Joint Statement on Hong Kong Legislative Council Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<div>12\/20\/2021 07:29 AM EST<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n<p>We, the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, and the United States Secretary of State, noting the outcome of the Legislative Council elections in Hong Kong, express our grave concern over the erosion of democratic elements of the Special Administrative Region\u2019s electoral system. Actions that undermine Hong Kong\u2019s rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy are threatening our shared wish to see Hong Kong succeed.<\/p>\n<p>Since handover, candidates with diverse political views have contested elections in Hong Kong. Yesterday\u2019s election has reversed this trend. The overhaul of Hong Kong\u2019s electoral system introduced earlier this year reduced the number of directly elected seats and established a new vetting process to severely restrict the choice of candidates on the ballot paper. These changes eliminated any meaningful political opposition. Meanwhile, many of the city\u2019s opposition politicians \u2013 most notably the majority of the \u201cNSL 47\u201d \u2013 remain in prison pending trial, with others in exile overseas.<\/p>\n<p>We also remain gravely concerned at the wider chilling effect of the National Security Law and the growing restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, which are being felt across civil society. NGOs, trade unions and human rights organizations not supportive of the government\u2019s agenda have been forced to disband or leave, while media freedoms are being curtailed at pace.<\/p>\n<p>Protecting space for peaceful alternative views is the most effective way to ensure the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. We urge the People\u2019s Republic of China to act in accordance with its international obligations to respect protected rights and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, including those guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>12\/20\/2021 07:29 AM EST &nbsp; Antony&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43321,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43320\/revisions\/43321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}