LONDON, July 4 — British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt vowed today to maintain the pressure on China over the treatment of protesters in Hong Kong, amid an escalating diplomatic row.
He repeated that there would be “consequences” if Beijing breached commitments it made about rights in Hong Kong when Britain handed over control.
Speaking to BBC radio, Hunt declined to specify but said “you keep your options open”.
“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 said.
After Hunt first warned of “serious consequences” on Tuesday, the Chinese foreign ministry hit back by accusing him of indulging in a colonial fantasy.
China’s ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming gave a press conference yesterday demanding Britain stop interfering and warning it risked “further damaging” bilateral ties.
The envoy was summoned to the foreign ministry in London later yesterday.
Hunt repeated today that he does not support the violent protesters who stormed Hong Kong’s parliament, but said they should not be dealt with by “repression”.
“We see this situation as a very worrying situation. And we’re just asking very simply for that (Hong Kong return) agreement that we have with China from 1984 to be honoured,” he said. — AFP
