The New Zealand Government has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and made a number of other changes in light of China’s decision to pass a national security law for Hong Kong, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says.
“China’s passage of its new national security legislation has eroded rule-of-law principles, undermined the ‘one country, two systems’ framework that underpins Hong Kong’s unique status, and gone against commitments China made to the international community,” Mr Peters said.
“In light of this, it is important that New Zealand responds proportionately and deliberately to the passage of the national security law. As part of that response, Cabinet has decided to suspend New Zealand’s extradition treaty with Hong Kong.
“New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kong’s criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China. If China in future shows adherence to the ‘one country, two systems’ framework then we could reconsider this decision.”
New Zealand’s review of its overall relationship with Hong Kong is ongoing, but Mr Peters announced two other outcomes of it.
“Firstly, we are changing how we treat the export of sensitive goods to Hong Kong. From now on, we will treat military and dual-use goods and technology exports to Hong Kong in the same way as we treat those exports to China. Secondly, we have updated our travel advice to alert New Zealanders to the risks presented by the National Security Law.”
“New Zealand remains deeply concerned at the imposition of this legislation, and we will continue to monitor the situation in Hong Kong as the law is applied. As a result, the review of our cooperation settings with Hong Kong will be ongoing,” Mr Peters said.
