China Warns UK to Stay Out of Hong Kong Riots
BEIJING (Dispatches) -- Beijing on Saturday told the United Kingdom to stay out of China’s internal affairs after Britain’s foreign minister called for an independent investigation into the recent riots in its former colony Hong Kong.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called for the probe on Friday after a phone call with Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam, the Foreign Office in London said in a statement.
"It is simply wrong for the British government to directly call Hong Kong’s Chief Executive to exert pressure,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement.
"The Chinese side seriously urges the UK to stop its interference in China’s internal affairs and stop making random and inflammatory accusations on Hong Kong,” she said, adding that Hong Kong was no longer a British colony and the UK has no supervisory rights.
Hong Kong has been beset by often violent riots for the past nine weeks, in the deepest political crisis for the territory since it was returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997, posing a serious challenge to the central government in Beijing.
In a statement on Friday, the British Foreign Office said Raab had condemned the violence in Hong Kong but emphasized the right to peaceful protest.
Hong Kong police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse rioters on Saturday, and demonstrators swiftly gathered elsewhere during another tense and restive weekend.
Protesters rallied across the city - with thousands thronging the airport arrivals hall for a second day - while elsewhere police displayed a new willingness to quickly and forcibly clear them from the streets.
Tear gas was used after several hundred rioters who had marched through Tai Po in the north of the territory had barricaded an intersection in the Tai Wai neighborhood.
They dispersed, as noxious smoke also filled the underground station there.
China demanded that the city’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways suspend staff involved in the demonstrations. One of its pilots was arrested last week.
The protests began after Hong Kong’s government tried introducing an extradition bill that would have allowed defendants to be sent to mainland China for trial.
The bill has been suspended, but protesters have stepped up their riots. The protests have been condemned by the central government in Beijing. China has also accused foreign powers of fuelling the unrest.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called for the probe on Friday after a phone call with Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam, the Foreign Office in London said in a statement.
"It is simply wrong for the British government to directly call Hong Kong’s Chief Executive to exert pressure,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement.
"The Chinese side seriously urges the UK to stop its interference in China’s internal affairs and stop making random and inflammatory accusations on Hong Kong,” she said, adding that Hong Kong was no longer a British colony and the UK has no supervisory rights.
Hong Kong has been beset by often violent riots for the past nine weeks, in the deepest political crisis for the territory since it was returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997, posing a serious challenge to the central government in Beijing.
In a statement on Friday, the British Foreign Office said Raab had condemned the violence in Hong Kong but emphasized the right to peaceful protest.
Hong Kong police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse rioters on Saturday, and demonstrators swiftly gathered elsewhere during another tense and restive weekend.
Protesters rallied across the city - with thousands thronging the airport arrivals hall for a second day - while elsewhere police displayed a new willingness to quickly and forcibly clear them from the streets.
Tear gas was used after several hundred rioters who had marched through Tai Po in the north of the territory had barricaded an intersection in the Tai Wai neighborhood.
They dispersed, as noxious smoke also filled the underground station there.
China demanded that the city’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways suspend staff involved in the demonstrations. One of its pilots was arrested last week.
The protests began after Hong Kong’s government tried introducing an extradition bill that would have allowed defendants to be sent to mainland China for trial.
The bill has been suspended, but protesters have stepped up their riots. The protests have been condemned by the central government in Beijing. China has also accused foreign powers of fuelling the unrest.