Britain has criticized Hong Kong’s national security law as deviating from the original purpose of targeting “a tiny number of criminals who seriously endanger national security,” in the country’s latest half-yearly report on its former colony.

The legislation was instead being used to stifle political opposition, drastically curtail the space for expressing alternative political views and deter legitimate political debate, the British government said in the report, published on Thursday.

“We are now seeing the effects of a law with loosely defined provisions, backed up with the threat of potentially long jail sentences and transfer of cases to mainland China for prosecution and sentencing,” it added.

The report was the 48th written as part of a regular series and submitted to Parliament on the implementation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.

It covered major happenings in Hong Kong between July 1 and Dec. 31 last year, a period “defined by a pattern of behavior by Beijing intended to crush dissent and suppress the expression of alternative political views,” the British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, wrote in his foreword.

He added that China had broken its obligations guaranteed under the joint declaration.

The Beijing authorities had acted unilaterally to effect electoral changes in Hong Kong, Raab said, also singling out the “politicized” prosecution decisions of the local Department of Justice.

A section of the report was devoted to the arrest and prosecution of Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily. It gave an account of a police raid on the newsroom on Aug. 10, the prosecution of Lai for fraud and, later, for collusion with foreign forces under the national security law, and government lawyers’ successful challenge of the High Court’s approval of his bail application.

“We must continue to stand up for the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong,” he said. “We will continue to hold China to its obligations to safeguard the way of life of the people of Hong Kong, as is guaranteed by the joint declaration.”

The Hong Kong government on Friday “strongly refutes” comments contained in the British report. It opposed misleading claims made by some foreign politicians on the central Chinese authorities’ improvement to the local electoral system and their “ulterior motives.”

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