The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Development of the United Kingdom made false statements concerning China

　　Chinanews.com, September 27. The spokesperson of the British Embassy in the UK recently responded to a reporter's question on the wrong remarks by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Development of the United Kingdom. And prejudice, abandon lies and deception, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and avoid causing new damage to China-UK relations.

　　The following is the full text of the question and answer:

Reporter: A few days ago, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Development Ahmed publicly expressed concern about Hong Kong and Xinjiang issues at the Human Rights Council.

What is China's comment?

Embassy Spokesperson: The

Secretary of State

Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom has abused the Human Rights Council platform to make groundless accusations and slanders against China on Hong Kong and Xinjiang issues. We express our strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this.

Issues involving Hong Kong and Xinjiang are not human rights issues at all. The essence is that China safeguards national sovereignty, security and unity, adheres to the rule of law, and protects the rights of people of all ethnic groups to live and work in peace.

I want to emphasize:

　　First, the core of the Sino-British Joint Declaration is that China resumes its sovereignty over Hong Kong. After Hong Kong’s return, the rights and obligations related to the United Kingdom in the Joint Declaration have been fulfilled. The United Kingdom has no sovereignty, no power to govern Hong Kong. No supervision power, no right to use the Joint Declaration to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs.

The Hong Kong National Security Law has filled up the long-standing legal loopholes in Hong Kong. It aims to uphold and improve "One Country, Two Systems", which is conducive to maintaining Hong Kong's prosperity, stability and long-term stability, and is welcomed and supported by the Hong Kong people.

The law fully embodies the unification of the central’s comprehensive governance power and the high degree of autonomy of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It does not change the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong and the legal system of the Special Administrative Region, and does not affect the administrative power, legislative power, independent judicial power, and final adjudication power of the Special Administrative Region.

The law punishes a very small number of acts that seriously endanger national security, and the legal rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents will continue to be better protected.

　　Second, the British side disregarded the facts of Xinjiang's development and groundlessly accused China of Xinjiang-related policies, which completely reversed black and white and confused right and wrong.

Since the 1990s in China, thousands of terrorist attacks have taken place in Xinjiang, severely endangering the human rights of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

In response to the strong demands of the local people, the Xinjiang local government has adopted a series of anti-terrorism and de-radicalization measures in accordance with the law and achieved positive results. These measures are essentially no different from the British transformation and separation projects.

At present, Xinjiang is in the best period of development in history. People of all ethnic groups enjoy the full rights to survival and development, and freedom of religious belief is guaranteed in accordance with the law.

More than 40 countries jointly spoke at the 44th meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, and positively evaluated Xinjiang's achievements in the development of human rights and the achievements in counter-terrorism and de-radicalization.

Since the end of 2018, more than 1,000 diplomats, officials of international organizations, journalists and religious figures from more than 90 countries have visited Xinjiang and witnessed the excellent situation of Xinjiang’s stable and prosperous development and the happy lives of people of all ethnic groups.

China welcomes all foreigners who uphold an objective and fair stand to visit Xinjiang.

　　The Chinese government attaches great importance to the promotion and protection of human rights, and its achievements in the cause of human rights are obvious to all.

But no country in the world has a perfect human rights situation, and the UK is no exception.

We urge the British side to handle its own human rights issues well, and not to point fingers around or even interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

China is willing to conduct exchanges with all countries in the world on the basis of equality and mutual respect, but firmly opposes distorting facts, spreading rumors and smearing, and opposes interfering in the internal affairs of other countries through human rights issues.

　　Recently, China-UK relations have encountered difficulties. The fundamental reason is that the British side did not abide by the international relations norms of mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs, and adopted a series of wrong words and deeds on Hong Kong and Xinjiang-related issues.

The development of Sino-British relations not only conforms to the fundamental interests of China and the UK, but is also conducive to world peace and development.

It is hoped that the British side will proceed from the overall situation of Sino-British relations, put aside its arrogance and prejudice on Hong Kong and Xinjiang-related issues, discard lies and deception, stop interfering in China's internal affairs, and avoid causing new damage to China-UK relations.