HONG KONG: A year ago, an extradition bill in Hong Kong that could have sent criminal suspects to face trial in mainland China sparked the semi-autonomous territory's largest protests and its biggest political crisis since its return to China in 1997.
Now, the issue has come full circle.
After China cited the sometimes violent demonstrations as justification to impose a sweeping new security law in Hong Kong, the U.K. this week became the fourth country to suspend its extradition treaty with the former British colony, joining the United States, Australia and Canada.
As with Hong Kong's withdrawn extradition bill, the concern was the possibility that people could be handed over to mainland Chinese law enforcement and disappear into its opaque and frequently abusive legal system.
"Extradition, at the bottom of it, is a political act. It's a political act whether or not you surrender a person," said Philip Dykes, chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association.
"Extradition treaties with Hong Kong were always on the basis that whatever happens, a person will not be removed to the mainland."
The moves underscore a growing divide between authoritarian China and the U.S. and other like-minded democracies over human rights and other issues.
Just three years ago, Australia's conservative government was making a high-profile push for an extradition treaty with China, an effort that ran afoul of parliamentary opposition.
Now, not only has Australia suspended extradition with Hong Kong, it is warning its citizens of the risk of arbitrary detention in China.
China says the new security law is needed to combat terrorism and separatism and prevent Hong Kong from becoming a base for subverting Chinese state power.
In general, cases would be tried in Hong Kong, but the law allows for mainland jurisdiction in some circumstances.
China's policies toward Hong Kong were on the agenda for meetings in London on Tuesday between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
It was a separate piece of legislation that launched last year's protests, one that would have permitted the extradition of criminal suspects from Hong Kong to China.
While the Hong Kong legal system's fairness and transparency has helped establish the city as a center for business and finance, China's Communist Party-dominated courts are accused of handing down convictions based on political considerations and using coerced confessions.
What became the biggest political crisis in the semi-autonomous territory since its 1997 handover to Chinese sovereignty was triggered by a murder case.
A young Hong Kong man, Chan Tong-kai, allegedly killed his girlfriend while on vacation in Taiwan and fled back home.
Hong Kong authorities could not send Chan to Taiwan for trial because of the lack of an extradition agreement.
The government cited Chan's case as an example of the loophole the proposed extradition legislation would close, allowing Hong Kong to transfer fugitives to any jurisdiction with which it did not have a treaty, including Taiwan and mainland China.
The proposal triggered a massive backlash from Hong Kong residents, who feared that suspects could be sent to the mainland for trial.
Though the government withdrew the bill during the protests, the demonstrations took on a broader anti-government and anti-police agenda and grew increasingly violent.
China's detention of several Hong Kong booksellers in late 2015 had already focused concern on the undermining of the legal autonomy the territory was promised when the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997.