LONDON (AP) — Britain's government will withdraw its judges from Hong Kong’s top court, saying Wednesday that remaining would “legitimize oppression.”

The government said it was “no longer tenable for serving U.K. judges” to sit on the court of final appeal because of the increasingly oppressive laws enacted by China.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says that “since the National Security Law was imposed, authorities have cracked down on free speech, the free press and free association. “

She said the decision to pull British judges out out after many years in Hong Kong was taken by the British government in consultation with the head of the U.K. Supreme Court.