PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 02 September, 2014, 11:29am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 02 September, 2014, 11:57am
Beijing has accused UK lawmakers of meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs. Photo: SCMP
Beijing has accused UK lawmakers of meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs after London vowed to carry out an inquiry into Hong Kong’s current political situation.
In an angry rebuke to London’s plans to probe the progress of the former British territory, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Committee has written to its UK counterpart, warning against a parliamentary inquiry.
Britain plans to examine the impact of the joint declaration looking at pace of political and constitutional reform amid Beijing asserting control.
Signed 30 years ago, the declaration with Britain and China co-signatories marked the transition of Hong Kong moving back to Chinese rule and the unique framework that the territory would be governed by.
According to the BBC, Beijing’s letter branded the inquiry as an "highly inappropriate act which constitutes interference in China’s internal affairs”.
It vowed to "brook no interference, either directly or indirectly, from the UK or any other external forces".
The revelation comes after China laid out plans for universal suffrage in Hong Kong which included a veto on the territory’s next leader.
British lawmaker Richard Ottaway, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said there “seems to be a prima facie case” that China breached the Sino declaration.
“The Basic Law which flows out of the joint declaration did call for universal suffrage in the election of the chief executive and if you have a committee that is not neutral and is nominating a limited number of candidates, there seems to be a prima facie case that the undertakings given have been breached,” Ottaway told the BBC.
The Conservative lawmaker vowed to continue with the inquiry, and insisted the committee had drawn no conclusions from the recent tensions in Hong Kong.
In a startling admission, however, the lawmaker quelled hopes of a British intervention on the issue of the Sino-British declaration.
“As far as sanctions are concerned, frankly we are in a fairly weak position.
“Indeed, we are in a very weak position right from the beginning when this declaration was signed,” Ottaway said.
China’s letter also insisted British lawmakers to "act with caution on the issue of Hong Kong, bear in mind the larger picture of China-UK relations and Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability, stop interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs and cancel the inquiry on UK-Hong Kong relations".
Ottaway batted off Beijing’s resistance to a probe.
He said parliament would want to find out “what is the Foreign Office doing” if “China hasn’t complied with its undertakings [on the joint declaration]” that ensured Hong Kong’s independence under “One Country, Two Systems.”
He added the inquiry marked “the standards and norms that we in Britain we think are important and that will of course influence the way we conduct our relations with China”.
Without prejudging the inquiry’s final report, Ottaway said: “It may well be that my MPs might decide that Beijing is behaving quite reasonably.”
The influential Commons committee, formed of lawmakers from Britain’s three main political parties, announced in July it would investigate Hong Kong’s affairs, some 30 years after the signing of the Joint Declaration, to examine the territory’s progress and pace of reform.
The Foreign Affairs Committee previously stated that Britain, a co-signatory of the joint declaration, "retains an enduring commitment to Hong Kong following the transfer of sovereignty in 1997".
British lawmakers are still planning to visit the territory as part of the inquiry.
