The conviction* by a Hong Kong court on Thursday 1st April 2021 of Liberal International (LI) individual member and Prize for Freedom laureate, Martin Lee along with other pro-democracy leaders, has sent shockwaves through democracies around the world. 

The Liberal International (LI) Bureau strongly condemn the continuing violations of fundamental political and human rights of Hongkongers by the Chinese authorities. The arrest of an international lawyer amongst the 53 people detained in early morning raids on Wednesday, 6 January 2021, represents an escalation of Beijing’s suppression; demonstrating the dangers of dissent in the would-be new Hong Kong that China seeks to create.

The arrest of seven pan-democracy legislators in Hong Kong this past weekend has provided the world with a familiar coup d'oeil of the island’s rapidly diminishing political and human rights guarantees, which had already been severely fractured in June this year with the imposition of China’s so called ‘national security law.’

The bureau of Liberal International (LI) condemns the arrest of two Hong Kong opposition lawmakers, Mr Lam Cheuk-ting and Mr Ted Hui Chi-fung - both from the Democratic Party (DP) and critics of Beijing - on Wednesday, 26 August 2020 as the crackdown on pro-democracy supporters widens.

Liberal parliamentarians across LI's Nordic member parties have come together to issue a statement condemning the Chinese government's stripping of Hong Kong's autonomy and special status.

Today China has chosen to surrender its international obligations by demolishing the ‘one-country-two-systems’ firewall.

The bureau of Liberal International condemns the Chinese government’s intention to impose a so-called ‘national security law’ on Hong Kong - a precursor to direct rule from Beijing - in contradiction to the terms set out in the 1997 handover agreement.

Joint Statement by LI, FNF, CALD and ALDE Party on Hong Kong’s clampdown of the opposition which 
is now its other pandemic.

Parliamentarians of Liberal International member parties spanning the Nordic countries, with the support of prominent Liberal figures across three continents, have urged an end to the violence in Hong Kong and called on the Chinese government to refrain from further escalation.

Liberal International condemns the use of violence and excessive force by the Hong Kong security services. Hong Kong is again gripped by civic protests, the largest pro-democracy demonstrations in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) since LI was on the ground providing direct support for the Umbrella Movement protests in 2014.

In the thirtieth anniversary year of the ‘tank man’ protest in Beijing – an event that followed the violent suppression of protesters demanding greater freedoms in Tiananmen Square – China has started 2019 by raising tensions and threatening its neighbours.

"Their place is in the parliament and with their constituency. If they should stand in front of something it should be the Nobel Committee to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, not in front of a Court!", blasted the LI secretary-general as the news emerged of today’s sentencing of two prominent pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.