Chinese diplomat derides UK’s move to offer HK citizenship

LONDON >> The Chinese ambassador to Britain accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday of meddling in China’s affairs by offering citizenship to 3 million people from Hong Kong following the imposition of a national security law.

Ambassador Liu Xiaoming defended his country’s new national security law against accusations it’s aimed at eroding Hong Kong’s considerable autonomy and curbing dissent. Liu pointed out that the U.K. handed control of the city that was a British colony for more than a century back to Beijing in 1997.

“This move constitutes a gross interference in China’s internal affairs and openly tramples on the basic norms governing international relations,” the ambassador said of the British citizenship offer, adding that the Chinese side has expressed “its great concern and strong opposition.”

Johnson introduced the new visa and citizenship route for certain Hong Kong residents last week after deciding China had committed a “clear and serious breach” of the SinoBritish Joint Declaration that set out the transition when Hong Kong was returned to China.

Johnson’s Downing Street office also urged China not to interfere if Hong Kong residents who are eligible to reside and seek citizenship in the U.K. want to come and said the government was “also reviewing extradition arrangements with Hong Kong.”

The conflict over Britain’s response to developments in Hong Kong has soured relations with China, the world’s secondlargest economy, at a time when Johnson’s government wants new trading relationships following the U.K.’s exit from the European Union.

The national security law China imposed last week makes secessionist, subversive, or terrorist activities illegal, as well as foreign intervention in the city’s internal affairs. Activities such as shouting slogans or holding up banners and flags calling for the city’s independence are violations of the law regardless of whether violence is used.

China argues the measure was needed to quell lawlessness and rioting. But there are signs the law is chilling free speech in Hong Kong after the city’s public libraries pulled books written by pro-democracy figures from shelves. Authorities said the books were being reviewed in light of the new legislation.

When a reporter asked China’s envoy to Britain during a news conference Monday about books being removed, Liu replied that it “depends on what the book is about.”

If a book aims to incite secession or subversion, “you know that will be tantamount to a kind of crime, he said.

Adding to Sino-British tensions, British regulators are weighing a punishment for China’s state broadcaster. CGTN, after upholding a complaint that it broke broadcasting rules by airing a forced confession from Peter Humphrey, a British corporate investigator imprisoned for two years in China.