Chinese Ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming (劉曉明) has accused the UK government of blatantly interfering in China’s internal affairs by suspending extradition with Hong Kong, leading a cavalcade of Beijing voices warning of consequences.
British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab on Monday that London would follow moves by Australia, Canada and the US, and formally suspend its extradition agreement with Hong Kong in response to Beijing’s unilateral imposition of a National Security Law on the territory.
It came on the eve of a visit to London by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss China, 5G and a post-Brexit free-trade deal with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Pompeo arrived on Monday night and did not address the media.
Photo: AP
The UK also extended a Chinese arms embargo established after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre to Hong Kong, and last week stripped Chinese telecoms Huawei Technologies Co from any future role in Britain’s 5G network.
Liu accused the country of having “blatantly interfered in China’s internal affairs and contravened international law and the basic norms governing international relations.”
“China has never interfered in UK’s internal affairs. The UK should do the same to China. Otherwise it must bear the consequences,” he said.
A spokesman for the embassy said the UK had “repeatedly made wrong remarks” on the Hong Kong national security legislation.
“Now the UK side has gone even further down the wrong road in disregard of China’s solemn position and repeated representations,” the spokesman said.
“The Chinese government remains unwavering in its resolve to implement the national security law for Hong Kong … to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interest, and to oppose external interference. China will firmly fight back at any move that interferes in its internal affairs,” he said.
“China will make a forceful counterattack to the UK’s wrong actions,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said at a daily news conference in Beijing yesterday.
“China urges the UK to give up its fantasies of continuing colonial influence in Hong Kong and immediately correct its mistakes,” he said.
In his speech Raab said the desire for continued cooperation with China, but said the actions were “a reasonable and proportionate response” to the new laws, which have been labeled broad, ill defined, and draconian, targeting basic freedoms of expression and political dissent in the semi-autonomous territory.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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