China And UK in a Diplomatic Row Over Hong Kong.
Its
UK ambassador said relations had been "damaged" by comments by
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and others backing the demonstrators' actions.
Liu
Xiaoming said those who illegally occupied Hong Kong's Parliament should be
"condemned as law breakers".
The
ambassador was later summoned to the Foreign Office over the remarks.
A
Foreign Office spokesman said Sir Simon McDonald, permanent under secretary and
head of the diplomatic service, told the ambassador his comments were
"unacceptable and inaccurate".
Earlier,
Prime Minister Theresa May said she had raised concerns with Chinese leaders.
Weeks of mass
protests in the territory over a controversial extradition bill exploded on
Monday, when a group of activists occupied the Legislative Council building for
several hours after breaking away from a peaceful protest - raising the
colonial-era British flag.
Critics
say the extradition bill could be used to send political dissidents from Hong
Kong to the mainland.
Demonstrators
have also broadened their demands to include the release of all detained
activists and investigations into alleged police violence.
In
the middle of the demonstrations, Mr Hunt pledged his "unwavering"
support to the ex-British colony and its citizens' freedoms.
In a series of
broadcast interviews and posts on social media, Mr Hunt repeated the message
that the protesters should refrain from violence, but urged China to listen to
the concerns of the Hong Kong people.
Beijing has made a
formal complaint about Mr Hunt, accusing the Conservative leadership contender
of "colonial-era delusions".
But
Mr Liu said he was "disappointed" by the UK's response.
He
said the countries' relationship was based on mutual respect and suggested
there would be further "problems" if the UK did not recognise China's
sovereignty over Hong Kong, its "territorial integrity and principle of
non-interference in domestic affairs".
He
said it was "hypocritical" of UK politicians to criticise the lack of
democracy and civil rights in Hong Kong when, under British rule, there had
been no elections nor right to protest.
The recent unrest,
he added, was "not about freedom but about breaking the law".
In response, Mr Hunt
said good relations between countries were based on "honouring the legally
binding relationships between them" - a reference to a 1984 treaty between
the UK and China which paved the way for sovereignty over the territory to pass
back to Beijing.
The Joint
Declaration, signed by Margaret Thatcher and the then Chinese Premier Zhao
Ziyang, set out how the rights of Hong Kong citizens should be protected in the
territory's Basic Law under Chinese rule.
Hong
Kong has, since 1997, been run by China under a "one country, two
systems" arrangement guaranteeing it a level of economic autonomy and
personal freedoms not permitted on the mainland.
The ambassador gave
the British government both barrels at his press conference earlier.
What's
fascinating is there was no pretence, no attempt to gloss this over at all.
This was visceral and system-wide. This is merely the British side of things,
the same message is coming from the Beijing and Hong Kong too. There is
definite push-back from the whole Chinese machine.
The
British are so infuriated that they've summoned the ambassador almost
immediately to give him a dressing down.
What
was a war of words now risks becoming a substantial issue between the two
countries.
Speaking
on Wednesday, Theresa May said she had raised her concerns directly with
Chinese leaders at the recent G20 meeting.
"It
is vital that Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and the rights and freedoms
set down in the Sino-British joint declaration are respected," she told
MPs.
Successive
UK governments have heralded a "golden era" in economic relations
with China, with growing levels of trade and foreign investment.
But
critics say this has come at the expense of turning a blind eye to human rights
violations in China and Beijing's increasing economic nationalism.
FROM .bbc.com/news/uk-politics-
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