As Hongkongers living in Liverpool, we want to express our grave concern over Liverpool City Council’s sister city relationship with Shanghai and call on the Council to nullify its sister city agreement with China,  as the Chinese government is once again violating human rights amidst Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This global joint campaign is co-launched by 163 cities across 7 countries in Asia, America, Europe and Oceania. 

When the UK and other countries are supporting Ukraine against Russian invasion, China on the other hand has obviously maintained a stance of pro-Russian pseudo-neutrality in various perspectives. Although China signed a bilateral treaty and published a joint statement with Ukraine in December 2013, promising that China would protect Ukraine from nuclear threats, it is very obvious that the statement was breached and Ukraine was betrayed, as both Chinese and Russian  judges vote against the UN's international court of justice (ICJ) 's order in March 2022 for the condemnation of Russian invasion of Ukraine. In April 2022, China voted to retain Russia as a part of the UN Human Rights Council, helping Russia continue to attack Ukraine, conducting war crimes and violating human rights. China's stance towards Russia's invasion so far has aggravated the condition of Ukraine as it refused to label Russia's act as an invasion or to condemn the gross and systematic violations of human rights and unjustified war of choice against Ukraine. On the contrary, China chose to severely criticise western sanctions on Russia..

Nobody knows China's devious tactics better than we Hongkongers do. We believe it is our obligation to warn the world of how dangerous it is to have any ties with China.

From the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 to the Uyghur genocide since 2014, the whole world have been witnessing how the Chinese totalitarian government deprives its people of freedom, democracy and even basic human rights. China shows no intention of respecting any universal values and even international agreements. In 2019, we told the world how Hong Kong's autonomy was eroded by the Chinese government by means of , abusing human rights, trampling Hong Kong’s press freedom violently, repressing democratic voices and, most horrendously, introducing the National Security Law in 2020. These are all breaching the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a legally binding international treaty, which has now carried  no significant meaning to China, just like how it paid lip service to the agreement to protect Ukraine; however, it is apparently allying with Russia. .

Apart from China’s untrustworthiness, its notorious human rights abuse records also reveal the totalitarian nature of this regime. China has been committing genocide in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) by sending Uyghurs and Muslims to mass arbitrary detention camps since 2014. Recently, leaked files exposed the inhumane situation in those camps like the ‘shoot to kill’ policy, torturing, sexual abuse and more. This should not be a country anyone wants to have a sister city with.

The world should not turn a blind eye and kowtow to China’s totalitarianism when there is countless evidence exposing the crimes the Chinese Communist Party has committed since its reign. The council must align with Liverpool's values and stand in solidarity with those oppressed. Hence, we call on everyone who stands up for human rights to sign this petition and urge the Liverpool City Council to decouple with the Chinese city Shanghai.

促請利物浦市議會終止與上海之姊妹城市關係

作為居住在利物浦的香港人，我們十分關注市議會與中國 上海 市的關係，並促請市議會與其終止姊妹城市締約。這次抗爭行動由7個國家共163個城市聯合發起，横跨亞洲、美洲、歐洲及大洋洲。

 為反抗極權主義，英國及其他國家一直協助烏克蘭阻擋俄羅斯。然而，從多方面可見，中國的立場明顯支持俄羅斯。

 早於2013年9月，中國與烏克蘭簽定了雙邊聲明，承諾中方會保護烏克蘭免於核威脅，然而中方卻背信棄義，不守承諾。在2022年3月，只有中國及俄羅斯反對在國際法庭審議俄羅斯停止入侵烏克蘭的提案。2022年4月，中方再次投票贊成保留俄羅斯在聯合國人權理事會的席位。中方亦暗地裡無視歐洲經濟制裁，用人民幣買入大量俄羅斯燃料。

 中共惡行罄竹難書，公然向世界展示極權政治如何剝削人權、自由和民主，例如1989年天安門屠城，以及2014年新疆維吾爾族的種族滅絕，中共一直以「再教育」為由，在新疆大規模關押維吾爾族人及穆斯林。最近，外洩檔案更公開集中營的不人道行為，例如虐待、擊斃逃跑者等政策。

中共更無視普世價值及國際協議，在2019年扼殺香港反修例抗爭，並於2020年訂立香港國家安全法，公然違反中英聯合聲明。全球見證香港的自治權被中國逐漸侵蝕：政權肆意侵犯人權、踐踏新聞自由、打壓言論自由。中英聯合聲明中承諾的「一國兩制」框架，民主、法治、以至港人表達意見的自由，均被中共政權以繞過香港司法制度設立的國安法剝奪。

時至今日，中國對俄羅斯入侵的立場加速了烏克蘭局勢惡化，不但拒絕定性其戰爭行動為入侵及予以譴責，反之批評西方對俄羅斯的制裁。

面對無數中共政權侵害人權的例子，國際社會不應忽視其極權統治。我們呼籲擁有共同價值觀、願意捍衛人權的同路人能夠簽署此請願書，促請 利物浦市議會終止與中國 上海市的姊妹城市締約。