UK government resists calls to revoke Hong Kong trade office privileges after spy case, but insists it will act against any threat to security
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenWilliam YiuPublished: 2:18pm, 22 May 2026The 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 assisting a foreign state to undermine British security would be brought to justice.
The government’s remarks came two weeks after Bill Yuen Chung-biu, the London office’s manager, and Peter Wai Chi-leung, who ran a security firm, were found guilty of spying on activists from Hong Kong on behalf of Chinese authorities.
Some politicians and civil society groups in the country had urged the UK 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 British 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. The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Act 1996 exists to promote trade with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and that legitimate activity is permitted to continue,” Seema Malhotra, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said in a reply to members of parliament.
