United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday has said that Hong Kong is a "special place" and that its people should continue to receive support from London, two days after offering UK citizenship to the special autonomous region's population
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd July, 2020) United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday has said that Hong Kong is a "special place" and that its people should continue to receive support from London, two days after offering UK citizenship to the special autonomous region's population.
"We have to stick up for our friends in Hong Kong. We have to stick up for their freedoms, their rights to association, to free speech," Johnson said during an appearance on the LBC radio broadcaster.
In parliament on Wednesday, Johnson slammed Beijing for breaking the Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed in 1984, which handed Hong Kong back to China. The prime minister said that all holders of British National Overseas passports in Hong Kong would have the right to receive UK citizenship, after Beijing enacted new security laws in the special autonomous region.
In response, the Chinese Embassy to the UK said on Thursday that Beijing reserves the right to enact appropriate measures in response.
Johnson said during his appearance on the broadcaster that China was a "fantastic country," but added that Hong Kong remains a special place for the UK.
"Hong Kong is a very special place to us, we have an agreement, the UK-China Joint Declaration, the Basic Law. Everybody understands the one country, two systems operation has to continue," the prime minister remarked.
Earlier on Friday, China's State Council appointed Luo Huining as national security adviser to Hong Kong's new Committee for Safeguarding National Security.
The new body has been established after China's National People's Congress passed a new security legislation that bans separatist, subversive and terrorist activities in Hong Kong amid a wave of public unrest that Beijing has blamed on foreign interference.
