Hong Kong leader John Lee said on Tuesday the central government in Beijing was "highly concerned" about the issue of foreign lawyers appearing in national security cases, with a landmark legal interpretation on the matter by Beijing expected soon.
Lee on Monday asked Beijing's legislative body to rule on a Hong Kong request to block foreign lawyers from working on national security cases, after the city's top court ruled that a British lawyer could represent jailed pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai.
Lee said he expected China's National People's Congress Standing Committee to make a ruling on the matter "as soon as possible", although he didn't indicate whether this decision would come before the start of Lai's trial on Thursday.