TONY CHEUNG
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 10 September, 2014, 1:09pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 10 September, 2014, 1:23pm
Jiang Yu (left) and Susan Rice. Photos: Sam Tsang and Reuters
The deputy commissioner of Beijing’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong has hit back at Washington officials who said that Hong Kong’s democratic development has “further to go”, saying foreign countries should respect the "one country, two systems" policy and refrain from commenting on Hong Kong's political reform.
Jiang Yu was responding to reports in theWashington Post on Wednesday morning.
The US newspaper quoted a senior US official as saying that Hong Kong was discussed at a meeting between President Xi Jinping and US national security adviser Susan Rice on Tuesday.
Jiang Yu, deputy commissioner of Beijing's foreign ministry in Hong Kong, said other countries should not comment on political reform in Hong Kong. Photo: Sam Tsang“Hong Kong did come up, and it was important for us to raise universal suffrage. For us, that means one man, one vote,” the official said according to the Washington Post.
The report quotes another US official as saying: “The ability for the people of Hong Kong to choose their leadership based on the will of voters is fundamentally what we’re looking for. One step is what was announced, and there’s further to go.”
Last week the national legislature approved universal suffrage for the next chief executive election in 2017, but set down a restrictive framework designed to screen out potential candidates that Beijing does not want on the ballot paper.
Jiang told the South China Morning Post that while she was not aware that political reform came up in the high-level meeting, “the ministry’s stance on foreign concern about political reform in Hong Kong is that the matter is entirely the city’s internal affairs … and a matter within the scope of China’s sovereignty.
“We want other countries to respect ‘one country, two systems’ and the affairs within the scope of Chinese sovereignty, as well as not to comment on Hong Kong political reform,” Jiang, formerly a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Beijing, added.
“We have also made it clear that we would absolutely not tolerate any external forces interfering with the progress in Hong Kong’s political development. So we hope the international community would respect the implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ in Hong Kong, because its successful implementation and Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability are very important to the international community and Hong Kong,” she said.
Jiang declined to comment on South China Morning Post’s report on the United Nation’s committee meeting on Hong Kong human rights next month.
The international body – which monitors civil and political rights across the world – will discuss whether a select group of regions including Hong Kong have complied with its previous recommendations.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1589303/senior-beijing-official-hong-kong-hits-back-us-diplomats-comments
