Britain warned China of serious consequences if Hong Kong rights not restored

Britain warned China on Tuesday there would be serious consequences if Beijing broke its promises to protect freedoms in Hong Kong, after police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters.

Officers moved in after crowds stormed and trashed the legislature in the former British colony on Monday, the anniversary of its return to Chinese rule, protesting against proposed legislation allowing extraditions to mainland China.

British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt condemned violence on both sides but said China needed to stick to commitments it made when it took back Hong Kong to allow freedoms there not enjoyed in mainland China, including the freedom to protest.

“There will be serious consequences if that internationally binding legal agreement were not to be honoured,” said Hunt, who is a candidate to replace Theresa May as British Prime Minister.

“The UK signed an internationally binding legal agreement ... that enshrines the ‘one country, two systems rule’, enshrines the basic freedoms of the people of Hong Kong and we stand four square behind that agreement, four square behind the people of Hong Kong,” he told the BBC.

China said on Monday Britain no longer has any responsibility for Hong Kong and needed to stop “gesticulating” about the city.

It has denied interfering in Hong Kong affairs, though protesters have said the extradition bill is part of a relentless move towards mainland control.

Hunt said many supporters of the Hong Kong demonstrators would have been dismayed by footage of Monday’s protests.

“But we urge the authorities not to use what happened as a pretext for repression, but rather to understand the root causes of what happened which is a deep-seated concern by people in Hong Kong that their basic freedoms are under attack,” he said.

The protests have created a fresh crisis for Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is already grappling with a trade war with Washington, a faltering economy and tension in the South China Sea.

China and Britain signed a Joint Declaration in 1984 on the terms of the return of Hong Kong.

Monday marked the 22nd anniversary of the actual handover in 1997, and some protesters hung a colonial flag in a chamber of the Legislative Council building after getting in.

China said in 2017 the Sino-British Joint Declaration was a historical document with no practical significance, and has regularly urged Britain not to interfere in Hong Kong affairs as the protests have mounted.

(Reuters contributed to this story)