Secretary Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary Raab at a Joint Press Availability (Hong Kong Excerpts)

U.S. Department of State

Secretary Antony J. Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab at a Joint Press Availability

REMARKS TO THE PRESS
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
NO. 9 DOWNING
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
MAY 3, 2021

HONG KONG EXCERPTS

Foreign Secretary Raab: We also discussed China. I think it’s fair to say we see eye to eye on the need to stand up for our values, holding Beijing to the commitments that they’ve made, whether it’s in relation to Hong Kong under the Joint Declaration or wider commitments, whilst also at the same time finding constructive ways to work with China in a sensible and positive manner where that’s possible. That’s important, I think, on global issues like climate change. We want to see China stepping up to the plate and playing its full role.

Secretary Blinken: We’ll talk about threats to the international rules-based order and to democratic values and human rights. Together, our two countries recently took measures to prevent British and American businesses from inadvertently supporting forced labor in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China. We’ll continue our robust cooperation to address the atrocities in Xinjiang, a crackdown on pro-democracy activists and politicians in Hong Kong – which breaches China’s international commitments – and the repression of media freedom across China and in other parts of the world.