Beijing rejects US move over Hong Kong
The Commissioner’s Office of the Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong on Wednesday “strongly disapproved and firmly rejected” the US decision to extend the so-called “national emergency with respect to Hong Kong”. In a statement, it said the move interfered in the nation’s internal affairs and Hong Kong affairs. “The US side has repeated the old trick of abusing the concept of national security to link Hong Kong to US’s ‘national emergency’, falsely accused the ‘situation in Hong Kong’ of posing a threat to US’s national security, and continued to impose unilateral sanctions on Hong Kong on the basis of US’s domestic laws.” It added that under the national security law and new electoral system, all sectors are forging ahead to write a new chapter in “good governance”. In a statement published on Tuesday, the White House said that “the situation with respect to Hong Kong, including recent actions taken by the People’s Republic of China to fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States”. “For this reason, the national emergency declared on July 14, 2020, must continue in effect beyond July 14, 2023.”