Hunt is told: Keep your hands off Hong Kong
Chinese envoy sparks fury
CHINA’S ambassador to Brit- ain was summoned to the Foreign Office for a dressing down last night over incendiary comments about the unrest in Hong Kong.
Liu Xiaoming lambasted Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt for warning of ‘serious consequences’ if Beijing breached a legally-binding treaty over the former British colony, which has been scarred by weeks of violent protests.
Mr Hunt defended the rights of Hong Kong citizens, which were protected for 50 years when the territory was handed to Beijing in 1997, amid a row over a new extradition law.
But in a warning to British ministers, Mr Liu said: ‘ I tell them, “Hands off Hong Kong and show respect”. In the minds of some people, they regard Hong Kong as still under British rule. They forget... that Hong Kong has now returned to the embrace of the Motherland. This colonial mindset is still haunting the minds of some officials or politicians.’
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang had earlier said Mr Hunt seemed to be ‘fantasising’ about ‘the faded glory of British colonialism’. He also condemned the ‘bad habit’ of ‘gesticulating while looking down on other countries’ affairs’.
In response, a Foreign Office source said Mr Liu was hauled in for a meeting with Sir Simon McDonald, the head of the diplomatic service, following the ‘unacceptable and inaccurate’ comments.
Hong Kong enjoys rights and liberties unseen on the mainland under the terms of the 1997 deal – brokered in 1984 – to hand over rule from Britain to China under the principle of ‘one country, two systems’.
It gave Hong Kong ‘a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defence affairs’ for half a century from 1997. The city state has its own legal system and borders, and rights including freedom of assembly and free speech are protected, making it one of the few places in China where people can commemorate the 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square.
However, those who have taken to the streets in Hong Kong accuse Beijing of reneging on that deal with the help of unelected leaders.
Their concerns centre on a proposed law enabling people to be extradited from Hong Kong to China.
Anger rose to a new level on Monday when demonstrators stormed the city’s legislature, left anti-Beijing messages on the walls, and hung the city’s colonial- era emblem, which features the Union Flag.
Last night, Hong Kong police said they had arrested 12 suspects over Monday’s protest.
Mr Hunt told Channel 4 News: ‘We’re very concerned at the reaction in China to comments I made which were very straightforward, which were that we want to be the best of friends with them. But we expect all countries that we have internationally binding agreements with to honour those agreements.’
‘Colonial mindset’