BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong urged the British government to stop the “so-called biannual report on Hong Kong,” state media reported on Friday.
A spokesman for the ministry branch said that Britain’s report “blatantly interfered in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs, and seriously trampled on international law.”
Britain has criticized what it says is the systematic erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong by the Chinese government and the authorities’ suppression of free expression, in its latest report on the former British colony, which it announced in a written statement to parliament on Thursday. Reports are issued every six months.
In a separate statement, the Hong Kong government said late Thursday that it had refuted the “defamatory statements and ill-intentioned political attacks” contained in the British report.
“Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China,” the statement said, adding that the government urged Britain to “respect the basic rules governing international relations and stop interfering” in the city’s affairs.
(Reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing and Farah Master in Hong Kong; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Jerry Doyle)
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