Hong Kong ‘no longer autonomous from China’ says Pompeo, China warns of ‘strong countermeasures’
DHARAMSALA, 28 May: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told the Congress that Hong Kong no longer merits special treatment under US law, media reports said.
“No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground,” Pompeo has said in a statement on Wednesday.
The development came after Hongkongers in their thousands returned to the street to protest again to protest against Beijing’s plan to impose a new national security law in Hong Kong on Sunday.
The US Secretary of State has called the security law, “only the latest in a series of actions that fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms.”
“It is now clear that China is modelling Hong Kong after itself,” he has said.
Beijing has hit back a day later warning of ‘strong countermeasures’ over Pompeo’s Hong Kong remarks.
Chinese state-run media, CGTN has “Stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs, vowing to otherwise take “strong countermeasures.”
A spokesperson of the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) was quoted as saying in Chinese state-run media, CGTN that
The US should “abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations, and immediately stop meddling with Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs as a whole,” Chinese state-run media, CGTN has quoted a spokesperson of the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as saying in a written statement published on the website of the commissioner’s office.
“Otherwise, it would only meet with firm opposition and strong countermeasures from the 1.4 billion Chinese people, including our Hong Kong compatriots,” the spokesperson added.
