Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

London, July 4: British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt on Thursday said he hadn’t backed any violent protest in Hong Kong, shortly after the Chinese media accused Western ideologues of instigating unrest against the former British colony.

The Chinese state-run media has on Thursday blamed the Western government and ideologues for Hong Kong unrest in the midst of heightening diplomatic conflict between the United Kingdom (UK) and China over protests in the ex-British colony against a controversial extradition bill that would permit suspects in the territory to be sent to mainland China for court prosecution.

The China Daily has accused Western powers of instigating un unrest against the Hong Kong government “as a means to put pressure on the central government”.

State media, in particular, has blamed, Washington, London and other Western nations for providing succor to the protesters.

Addressing BBC radio, Hunt reiterated his criticism of the violence. He said, “Let me be clear what I said. I said that I condemned, and we as the United Kingdom condemn, all violence and that people who supported the pro-democracy demonstrators would have been very dismayed by the scenes they saw.”

“ … Britain is a country that honors its international obligations and what I was saying … we signed an agreement in 1984 which lasts for 50 years and we would expect all sides to honor that agreement,” Hunt said.

Hunt said Hong Kong has an independent judiciary and “it’s not for me as foreign secretary of the UK to second guess how that judiciary works”.

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