{"id":69416,"date":"2016-04-08T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T08:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=a9f4b74c125a0649960918b9009fecb3"},"modified":"2016-04-08T08:12:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T08:12:00","slug":"press-release-foreign-secretary-visits-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=69416","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Foreign Secretary visits Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Hong Kong is the first stop of the Foreign Secretary\u2019s East Asia tour, including the G7 Foreign Ministers\u2019 meeting in Japan.<\/p>\n<p>In Hong Kong, the Foreign Secretary will meet Chief Executive CY Leung where he will restate the UK\u2019s commitment as co-signatory to the Joint Declaration and support for Hong Kong\u2019s high degree of autonomy, rights and freedoms. He will underline the importance of One Country, Two Systems and of restarting progress on political reform.<\/p>\n<p>In a meeting with the Chief Justice, the Foreign Secretary will emphasise Rule of Law as the cornerstone of \u2018One Country, Two Systems\u2019, and will highlight the strong links between our legal systems.<\/p>\n<p>The Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Hong Kong is of great importance to the UK and Britain\u2019s longstanding commitment, as a co-signatory of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, is as strong as ever. Of course, the UK\u2019s relationship with Hong Kong is not just based on history. It is innovative, forward looking and dynamic, with excellent prospects for the future, on which we will continue to build.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Rule of Law is the cornerstone of an open and fair society. Hong Kong\u2019s success is underpinned by its independent judiciary and respect for rights and freedoms. Although the \u2018One Country, Two Systems\u2019 model is generally working well in Hong Kong, although concerns have been raised over the recent booksellers\u2019 case. With strong Rule of Law and a high degree of autonomy, Hong Kong continues to be a global hub for finance, business and legal services.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>While in Hong Kong, the Foreign Secretary will also visit the new Admiralty Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station to highlight cutting edge British engineering and construction, and will meet members of Scotland\u2019s Rugby 7s team. <\/p>\n<p>He will also meet Hong Kong and British businesses to discuss new ways of connecting the UK, Hong Kong and China markets, including by strengthening cooperation in innovative sectors such as green finance.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"further-information\">Further information<\/h3>\n<p>Follow the Foreign Secretary on twitter <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PHammondMP\">@PHammondMP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow the Foreign Office on twitter <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/foreignoffice\">@foreignoffice<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow the Foreign Office on <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/foreignoffice?ref=hl\">facebook<\/a> and <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/b\/105922144104190309938\/+foreignoffice\/posts\">Google+<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_193\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Media enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:newsdesk@fco.gov.uk\">newsdesk@fco.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">News Desk <\/span><br \/>\n              020 7008 3100\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Philip Hammond is in Hong Kong today, the first visit of a Foreign Secretary in over five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}