China lodges representation to UK over HK remarks

China has lodged a solemn representation with the UK over its foreign secretary’s remarks about Hong Kong affairs, Hua Chunying, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said Thursday.

Hua made the remarks at a routine press briefing on Thursday in response to a question on a British human rights activist’s barred entry to Hong Kong.

According to reports, Benedict Rogers, the British activist and cofounder of the Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission, was denied entry to Hong Kong, after arriving from Bangkok on Wednesday.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said London needed an explanation from Hong Kong and Beijing as “Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy, and its rights and freedoms, are central to its way of life and should be fully respected.”

Hua said Hong Kong is a special administrative region (SAR) of China, therefore its affairs are China’s internal affairs and that it is China’s sovereign right to deny or approve anyone’s entry into Hong Kong.

“Rogers himself is clear about whether his trip to Hong Kong was intended to interfere in the SAR’s internal affairs and judicial independence,” she concluded, reiterating that China firmly opposes any government, organization or personal interference in China’s domestic affairs.