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| © Reuters=News1 © News1 Reporter Sung Donghun |
When the British criticized China’s recent reorganization of the Hong Kong election system as inconsistent with the spirit of the’Hong Kong Return Agreement’, China immediately criticized’the UK has no supervisory authority and responsibility for Hong Kong’ and said that it was groundless slander. Conflicts are intensifying.
Earlier, on the 11th, the National People’s Congress (NNP), China’s top national authority, passed the draft’Resolution on Completion of the Hong Kong Election System’ with 2985 votes in favor and one abstention at the 13th 4th Plenary Meeting.
According to Bloomberg on the 15th (local time), British Foreign Minister Dominic Rab said in a statement on the 13th, “China’s decision to make a sudden change to limit Hong Kong’s participation in the election system will lead to a legally binding agreement between the UK and China. It’s a more obvious violation,” he said.
“This is the third violation of the new agreement in the last nine months,” said Rab.
Bloomberg explained that Rav’s remarks came after China’s remarks that it was “continuously ratified” after the Hong Kong return agreement signed by the two countries in 1984, and it was a step further than previous remarks.
The Chinese embassy in the UK said on the website the following day, “The Chinese government manages Hong Kong according to the Chinese Constitution and the Basic Law of Hong Kong, not according to the Hong Kong Return Agreement.” By doing so, the historical mission of the Hong Kong Return Agreement has already been fulfilled.”
“The UK has no sovereignty or supervisory authority over Hong Kong. It is not responsible for the so-called Hong Kong. It is to interfere with Chinese internal affairs for any country or organization to intervene in the internal affairs of Hong Kong without any rights by borrowing the Hong Kong Return Agreement.” Refuted.
China’s Hong Kong and Macau offices also added to the G7, which expressed serious concerns about the reform of the Hong Kong election system, saying, “It distorts the facts and makes irresponsible remarks.” did.
The Hong Kong Return Agreement was signed by the two countries in 1984. Later, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Until then, Hong Kong had been under British rule for over 150 years. At the time of the agreement, the British returned Hong Kong in exchange for maintaining a’high degree of autonomy’ to Hong Kong. However, after President Xi Jinping, China tried to strengthen its grip on Hong Kong, and has been tightening crackdowns after a massive democratization protest took place in 2019.
The Global Times, an English version of China’s state-run journalist Hwangu Times, said on the 14th that the reform of the Hong Kong electoral system is fueling opposition from Western countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, and that China will continue its “long fight” with them in the future.