Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has rightly taken advantage of her London trip to defend Hong Kong's judicial independence. For the sake of diplomatic niceties, she stopped short of straightforwardly asking biased United Kingdom politicians and commentators to halt their verbal attacks on the city's judiciary over the recent jailing of three young activists for their roles in an unlawful assembly in 2014; but she did express her displeasure at such unfounded criticisms when she spoke at a dinner in London on Wednesday, calling them "extremely disturbing".

Lam did not name any assailants. But understandably, she was referring to comments made by those few foreign politicians and activists who have either implicitly or explicitly suggested the imprisonment of Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang was "political persecution". Among those politicians is former British colonial governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten.

In response to Lam's criticism, Patten - who is promoting his new book in Hong Kong - argued on Thursday that he did not criticize Hong Kong judges but the secretary for justice. The last governor of Hong Kong has earned a reputation as a hypocrite for his previous words and deeds. This time he surprised many people by taking hypocrisy to a new level.

It was the Court of Appeal that put the trio behind bars in a ruling based on pure legal grounds and reasoning. The defendants were prosecuted for offenses involving unlawful assembly, an offense punishable under the common-law system, originating from the UK. It had been codified and stipulated in Section 18 of Hong Kong's Public Order Ordinance long before the city's return to China in July 1997.

Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung was just doing his job - when deciding to apply for a sentencing review for this case - to uphold the rule of law. To have sat on his hands and let the lawbreakers get away with it would have been a dereliction of duty on the part of Yuen. Indeed, the additional prison sentences handed down by the Court of Appeal judges on the defendants have proven the appropriateness and propriety of Yuen in applying for a sentencing review. Yet, Patten craftily picked on the justice secretary. The way he has slyly avoided taking issue with the presiding judges shows he has been afraid of going eyeball-to-eyeball with Hong Kong's high-powered judiciary, which includes many judges from the UK who are sitting in the city's Court of Final Appeal.

Lam is in London to promote closer economic and trade ties with the UK, having just witnessed the signing of a FinTech Bridge Agreement which encourages cooperation between the governments, regulators and businesses in Hong Kong and Britain. She has engaged intensively in seeking more economic opportunities for Hong Kong ever since taking over the helm in July. That is because she is fully aware that many of the city's deep-seated problems which have helped aggravate political bickering and undermine social harmony could be solved only by further developing and diversifying the local economy. Foreign politicians, including Patten, should leave Hong Kong alone if they really care for the well-being of the city. The last thing Hong Kong needs is more politics; it has had too much of it.

(HK Edition 09/22/2017 page1)