The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) in London can continue its “legitimate activity”, the UK government has said, despite political pressure after a British court found two men linked to the office guilty of spying on activists.
But the UK government also said on Thursday that anyone in any organisation found to be helping a foreign state to undermine British security would be brought to justice.
Some British politicians and civil society groups had urged the government to review and revoke the privileges and immunities currently afforded to the office and consider proposals to repeal the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Act 1996.
But the government said it would not do so.
“This government is taking a consistent, long-term and strategic approach to managing the UK’s relations with China, rooted in UK interests,” Seema Malhotra, parliamentary undersecretary of state in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said in a reply to members of parliament.