Britain’s foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has said he will not back down over comments he made about demonstrations in Hong Kong, despite growing pressure from China.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang accused Mr Hunt on Wednesday of “basking in the faded glory of British colonialism” after he expressed concerns about Beijing using the protests to justify a crackdown on human rights in Hong Kong.
Mr Hunt, who is in the running to be Britain’s next prime minister, said there would be “consequences” if China backtracked on rights agreements it made when Britain handed over control of Hong Kong in 1997.
The foreign secretary repeated his warnings on Thursday, refusing to rule out imposing sanctions on China.
"You keep your options open," he told the BBC when asked to be specific about what “consequences” there would be for China.
"What I wanted to do was to make the point clearly that this isn't something that we would just gulp and move on - this would be a very serious issue for the UK," he added.
Hong Kong was plunged into political chaos on Monday as marches to mark 22 years since Hong Kong's handover to China from Britain boiled over.
Hundreds of protesters in the city besieged and broke into the former British colony’s parliament on Monday over a controversial extradition bill.
The proposed legislation would make it easier to transfer people to face trial in China, which does not have the same level of human rights as in Hong Kong.
The extradition bill controversy has given fresh momentum to Hong Kong's pro-democracy opposition movement, awakening broader concerns that China is chipping away at the rights guaranteed to Hong Kong for 50 years under a "one country, two systems" framework.
Hong Kong has seen weeks of violent demonstrations over the bill, which was suspended on June 15 by the island’s leader Carrie Lam. Protesters are calling for it to be dropped completely or for Ms Lam to resign.
At one peaceful protest, police fired 150 rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowds.
The storming of the legislature was carried out by a breakaway group to the main peaceful demonstration, which flew Britain’s Union Jack flag over legislators’ desks.
At least 11 men and one woman have so far been arrested in connection with the incident.
Mr Hunt said he did not support violence by the demonstrators but said China should not use the protests as a “pretext for repression”.
"It is by understanding the root causes of the concerns of the demonstrators - that freedoms that they have had for their whole life could be about to be undermined by this new extradition law," he added.
China’s ambassador to the UK was summoned to the foreign office on Wednesday after he told Britain to stop interfering or risk “further damaging” diplomatic relations.
Liu Xiaoming said that those who occupied the legislative building should be "condemned as law breakers". He also accused Britain of hypocrisy for interfering over civil rights in Hong Kong when under colonial rule, there were no elections and the right to protest did not exist.
The row appeared to still be simmering on in Beijing on Thursday as Mr Shuang accused “some people on the British side” of making “irresponsible remarks” about the situation in Hong Kong.
He said: "The Chinese side has resolutely responded to Mr Hunt's mistaken statements about Hong Kong, and China's response also applies to similar statements made by other officials of the British government."
