It is never ok, but there is a clear difference in the extent to which it occurs, the legality of it and how it’s handled by the government. For example, Gui Minhai has also criticized the US government but they didn’t kidnap him and keep him from exercising his right to council.
Or is your argument that every country that has performed extra judicial punishments, no matter the circumstances or judicial proceedings that followed, is as unreliable in its protection of human rights as China?
> is as unreliable in its protection of human rights as China?
The US is vastly worse than China in this regard. Hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered by the US govt in the middle east in the past two decades alone. The US does OK (and yes, obviously much better than China) domestically, but their respect for human rights ends at the border.
And this is a discussion about domestic courts, that’s what’s relevant to this article because those are the ones HK would extradite to. Extraditing to an American court is far more in line with respecting human rights than to a Chinese court.
Surely you jest. USA practices extraordinary rendition, torture, and assassination of their own citizens without trial.