Rally urges UK to declare joint declaration is dead

The demonstrators said annulling the 1984 treaty would allow the people of Hong Kong to choose their own future. Photo: RTHK

Several dozen people staged a rally outside the British consulate on Saturday evening, calling on London to declare that the Sino-British Joint Declaration is no longer valid.



The demonstrators, some waving British and colonial flags, said such a move would allow Hong Kong people to decide their own future.



They congratulated the Conservative Party for its gains in Thursday's general election in the UK, claiming Members of Parliament from the party support the idea of terminating the 1984 treaty.



In 2017, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing declared that the joint declaration, which set out how Hong Kong would be ruled following the handover, no longer had any realistic meaning and it was merely an historical document.



But London insisted that the treaty remains in force – a point it made again shortly after the current protests began in June, when it also demanded that Beijing continue to abide by the agreement.