China gives Hong Kong leader power to bar overseas lawyers

China’s top lawmaking body has given Hong Kong leader John Lee the power to bar foreign lawyers from national security cases, removing the decision from the city’s courts, in a move likely to further fuel concerns over judicial independence.
The use of foreign lawyers by both prosecutors and the defence have long been part of the former British colony’s rule of law traditions.
The move, reported by state news agency Xinhua on Friday, comes after a Hong Kong court this month postponed a national security trial against media tycoon and China critic Jimmy Lai to September, to give time for the ruling by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC).
In November, Lee had asked the NPCSC to weigh in on the matter after a series of failed attempts by the Department of Justice to block a British lawyer, Timothy Owen, from defending Lai.