LONDON (AP) – A senior Chinese official accused the United Kingdom of pleasing the United States when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in London, with China high on his agenda as he prepared for high-level meetings on Tuesday.
“We do not want to see China-United States relations occur in relations between China and the United Kingdom,” Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming said in a statement on Twitter Monday night.
Liu previously warned the United Kingdom not to “dance to the tune of the Americans” and instead urged Britain to pursue its “own independent foreign policy”.
Chinese authorities have repeatedly told Western powers to stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs, calls that increased in intensity after China introduced a national security law for the former British colony in June after a year of protests there. .
During his trip to London, Pompeo will discuss Hong Kong, as well as Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which the United States accused of making sensitive information vulnerable to “manipulation and espionage” by China. The company and the Chinese government reject these allegations.
Pompeo is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law, who recently fled to the United Kingdom, and Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong before the territory was returned to China after more than 150 years in 1997..
On Monday, Britain angered China when it announced that it would suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London warned that “the UK will have the consequences if it insists on going the wrong way.”
Adding that, “any attempt to pressure China” would be “doomed to failure” and would meet strong opposition from 1.4 billion Chinese, according to the statement.
Johnson previously promised 350,000 British overseas passport holders in Hong Kong a path to citizenship, allowing them to settle in the United Kingdom.
While Foreign Minister Dominic Raab told Parliament on Monday that an arms embargo would extend to Hong Kong. Raab was also pressured by British lawmakers to consider targeted sanctions against people, over concerns about China’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim population.
Australia and Canada suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong earlier this month, while the United States ended preferential economic treatment for Hong Kong and imposed sanctions on senior Chinese officials. China has taken similar retaliatory measures.
After nearly two years of intermittent trade talks, relations between the United States and China have worsened in recent months over Beijing’s handling of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
New concerns about China’s crackdown on its Uighur Muslim community and its territorial claims in the South China Sea have also fueled tensions.
Despite a growing war of words, this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the two powers to release more “positive energy” and jointly explore forms of peaceful coexistence.
However, the pressure is mounting.
Last week, Johnson ordered China’s Huawei Technologies team to be fully purged of Britain’s 5G network by the end of 2027. The decision was a U-turn by Britain, which under Prime Minister Theresa May It had agreed to work with Huawei, amid some ministries about security risks.
President Donald Trump praised Johnson’s Huawei ban and claimed he had forced London’s hand because of concerns about China, which he considers the United States’ main geopolitical rival.
“The UK made this important decision to protect its national security interests, just as countries around the world are doing,” the State Department said in a statement on Pompeo’s trip to London on Monday.
Pompeo, who said the United States is “analyzing” the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok ban, will discuss with Johnson so far vague intentions to create an alternative to Huawei, according to the statement. Along with a possible trade agreement related to Brexit, reiterating the “special relationship” between the two countries.
China, whose $ 15 trillion economy is five times the size of Britain’s, warned London that its Huawei ban would hurt investment: China has stakes in Britain’s leading infrastructure projects, from nuclear to rail.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday that the UK should “give up the illusion of continuing its colonial influence in Hong Kong” if it was to avoid “further damage to relations between China. and the UK. “
Reuters contributed to this report.
