Jeremy Hunt Warns China Against ‘Repression’

London: British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Thursday again warned China against “repressing” violent protesters in Hong Kong and asked it to listen to the “root causes” of demonstrators’ concerns. “The way to deal with that violence is not by repression, it is by understanding the root causes of the concerns of the demonstrators that freedoms that they have had for their whole life could be about to be undermined by this new extradition law,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Tensions between the UK and China have risen since Hunt backed demonstrators in Hong Kong who have been protesting against a controversial extradition bill, which critics say could be used to send political dissidents to mainland China. Following the chaos, Hunt said on Tuesday that China must “honour” the commitments mentioned in the Sino-British agreement signed when Hong Kong was returned to Beijing as an autonomous region. He warned Beijing that the UK would always put its principles before commercial interests, as he urged China to honour the “one country, two systems” agreement over Hong Kong. (IANS)

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