Britain to maintain pressure over HK
BRITISH Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt vowed on Thursday to maintain pressure on China over the treatment of protesters in Hong Kong, amid an escalating diplomatic row.
He r e pe ate d t hat t her e would be “consequences” if Beiji ng breached commitments it made about rights in Hong Kong when Br it a i n handed over control.
Spea k i ng to BBC r ad io, Hunt declined to specif y, but said “you keep your options open”.
“What I wanted to do was to make t he poi nt clea rly t hat t his isn’t something t hat we would just gulp and move on – this would be a ver y serious issue for t he UK,” he said.
Af ter Hunt f irst warned of “ser ious consequences” on Tuesday, the Chinese foreign ministr y hit back by accusing him of indulging in a colonial fa ntasy.
‘Stop interfering’
China’s ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming gave a press con ference on Wednesday demanding Britain stop interfering and warning it risked “f urt her damaging” bilatera l t ies.
The envoy was summoned to t he foreig n minist r y i n London later on Wednesday.
Hunt repeated on Thursday that he does not support the v i o l e n t p r o t e s t e r s w h o s t o r m e d H o n g K o n g ’s pa rl ia ment, but s a id t hey should not be dea lt wit h by “repression”.
“We see t his situation as a ver y worr y ing situation. And we’re just ask ing ver y simply for t hat [Hong Kong return] agreement that we have with China from 1984 to be honoured,” he said.
Chi nese foreig n minist r y spokesman Geng Shuang told a reg u la r press br ief i ng on Thursday that “some people on the British side are making irresponsible remarks on the Hong Kong issue”.
“The Chinese side has resolutely responded to Mr. Hunt’s mista ken statements about Hong Kong , a nd C h i na’s response a lso applies to similar statements made by other officia ls of the British government,” Geng added.