After the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers and a European Union official showed their concerns about Hong Kong executive election, Zhao Lijian, a Chinese spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, urged Tuesday to Western countries to stop interfering in the country's internal affairs.
RELATED:
China to Prioritize County Towns for the Urbanization Phase
During a daily press briefing, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that "certain Western countries and institutions are conspiring with each other to slander the election and grossly interfere in China's internal affairs. China expresses firm opposition to this and strongly condemns it."
Zhao continued to say that some countries have ignored that democracy has increased in Hong Kong and that mainstream public opinion wants unity and prosperity for the territory. "They sound like 'preachers of democracy' when they point fingers at Hong Kong's democratic elections, its high degree of autonomy, and its human rights and freedoms, which only exposes their double standards and their attempt to bring chaos to Hong Kong and contain China," he added.
"Hong Kong is China's Hong Kong. What kind of electoral system Hong Kong implements and what kind of democratic development path it explores are issues that fall entirely under the scope of China's internal affairs, and no external forces have the right to interfere," said the spokesperson.
Zhao said that the Asian country is seeking to establish the "one country, two systems" principle for developing high-quality democracy in accordance with Hong Kong's current reality. He added that any external forces trying to undermine this process would fail.
On Sunday, John Lee, 64, former chief secretary for administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, won the first executive elections in the regional electoral system since its improvement in 2021.