Hong Kong hits out at UK’s ‘untrue and biased’ criticism over bounties on activists
Beijing’s foreign affairs arm in the city accuses ‘some individual politicians’ from the West of ‘smearing’ Hong Kong’s national security laws
The Hong Kong government has hit out at the UK’s “untrue and biased” criticism of the city’s latest move to pursue some overseas-based activists for alleged national security violations.
Beijing’s foreign affairs arm in the city on Saturday also dismissed the criticisms by “individual politicians and institutions” from the West as “unwarranted slander”, saying they were “smearing” Hong Kong’s national security laws.
It said their comments only exposed their “hypocritical double standards” and “malicious intention” of using Hong Kong to contain Beijing. “Their despicable schemes are utterly disgraceful,” a spokesman for the Commissioner’s Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong said.
The office pledged that it “firmly” supported the Hong Kong government in performing its duties and the police force in taking law enforcement actions against “anti-China troublemakers disrupting Hong Kong”.
The response from the office and the Hong Kong government came after London hit out at the move on Friday to place a new round of bounties on 15 overseas-based activists over alleged national security offences.
The British government called it “transnational repression” and warned it would damage the city’s international reputation.