A view of Hong Kong Photo: VCG

A report by Reuters alleging China's central government was considering replacing its liaison office in Hong Kong was slammed by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioner office in Hong Kong on Tuesday, as Chinese observers noted that foreign interference won't stop and what China can do is to find a new way to strengthen its governance and safeguard national security in the city.

The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Tuesday lodged stern representations over a Reuters' report published earlier Tuesday and urged the British outlet to immediately stop spreading false information. 

The office statement did not name the Reuters report in question. However, it came soon after a report citing "people familiar with the matter" regarding the setup of a "crisis command center on the mainland side of the border" and government consideration of replacement of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong. 

Li Xiaobing, an expert on Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan affairs at Nankai University in Tianjin, told the Global Times that this was not the first time for the Western media to create some fake news about Hong Kong and "people familiar with the matter" was becoming a common source for those media outlets.

"This is absolutely a public opinion war. What they [Western media and foreign forces] want is to create rumors and fears among Hong Kong society, and they want to see China's governance over the city decrease and even experience an 'earthquake'," said Tian Feilong, an associate professor at Beihang University in Beijing and a member of the Beijing-based Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.

The office spokesperson reiterated that Hong Kong affairs are purely internal to China, and no matter how the Hong Kong situation develops, the Chinese government is rock-firm in defending national sovereignty, security and development interests, in implementing "one country, two systems" and in opposing any external interference in Hong Kong affairs.

Maybe the central government should consider sending liaison officials to get in touch with the newly elected district council members who are not extreme and try to change them, some Chinese analysts suggested, since this could prevent these people from embracing the West. 

Also on Tuesday, Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, remarked that China resolutely opposes and condemns the recent passage of the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 by the US Congress, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Yang said that the Chinese side has expressed its solemn position over the issue to the US side. 

"Chinese side urges the US to immediately stop interfering in China's internal affairs," he said. "And any US attempts to use Hong Kong-related matter to interfere in China's internal affairs, any plot to contain China's development, will not succeed."

Hong Kong with robust mainland support will maintain its prosperity and stability in the long term, Yang noted.

Li said that Hong Kong is an international city of interest to many major powers around the globe and so it was also easy for foreign forces to interfere in the city affairs, especially the US. In the past, as the China-US relationship was more cooperative than competitive, the city could remain peaceful and stable despite experiencing some unrest.

"But now the situation is totally changed," Li said. "China-US ties are getting increasingly intense and competitive, and the city will surely become a battle zone for the great power struggle between Beijing and Washington, and it won't stop in the short term."

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated Monday that Hong Kong is a part of Chinese territory, a Chinese special administrative region, while underscoring that any attempts to create chaos in the city and to damage its stability and prosperity will not succeed.

Wang made the remarks in response to a media request during his visit in Japan. 


Newspaper headline: West launches public opinion war over HK