London: Responding to Britain’s announcement that it would suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong after Beijing introduced a national security law in the former British colony, China on Tuesday, July 21, threatened to launch a “forceful counter-attack”.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that China will make a “forceful counter-attack to the UK’s wrong actions”.
As reported by Reuters, Wenbin said, “China urges the UK to give up its fantasies of continuing colonial influence in Hong Kong and immediately correct its mistakes.”
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, on Monday, told the Parliament, “We will not consider re-activating those arrangements, unless and until there are clear and robust safeguards, which are able to prevent extradition from the UK being misused under the new national security legislation,” as per Reuters’ report.
According to Britain, the new security law violates Hong Kong’s guarantees of freedoms, including an independent judiciary. Officials in Hong Kong and Beijing, however, said that the law is required to close the gaps in national security that were exposed by the recent pro-democracy and anti-China protests.
