Hong Kong: China has urged the United Kingdom to stop interfering in its internal matters and making random and inflammatory accusations against Hong Kong, a special administrative region in southern China that was earlier under the British rule till 1997.
"I'd like to point out that Hong Kong today is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. Long gone are the days when it was under British colonial rule," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Saturday.
Spokesperson of the British Foreign Office said that Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had called Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on August 9 and discussed the current turmoil in the region.
Hua was quoted as saying that Britain has no sovereignty, jurisdiction or right of supervision over Hong Kong when asked to comment on the call.
She added that the Chinese government is responsible for the foreign affairs relating to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in accordance with the Basic Law or the Constitution of the region.
"It is simply wrong for the British government to directly call Hong Kong's Chief Executive to exert pressure," she said, urging the UK to stop its interference in China's internal affairs and stop making random and inflammatory accusations on Hong Kong.
The semi-autonomous region has seen eight consecutive weeks of anti-government protests that began against a now-suspended extradition bill, that have since broadened to include calls for democracy and police accountability.
The said extradition bill was proposed on April 3 and its opposers argue that its controversial amendments will leave anyone on Hong Kong soil vulnerable to being grabbed by the Chinese authorities for political reasons or inadvertent business offences.
Multiple protests sometimes violent continue to take place in the semi-autonomous state despite the city's pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam publicly apologising for proposing the controversial legislation and announcing later that the bill was "dead".
