China shall not tolerate threats to 'national security' in Hong Kong

China says it won’t tolerate threats to the bottom line of “one country, two systems” in its territories, vowing to take new steps to “safeguard national security” in Hong Kong, following months of violent protests that left the city almost paralyzed.

At the end of a four-day meeting of China’s Communist Party leaders in the capital Beijing, the party’s Central Committee issued a stark message for protesters in Hong Kong.

The semi-autonomous Chinese territory has been rocked by a spate of turbulent street protests since June, when people outraged by a proposed extradition bill descended on the districts across the city. The bill was later withdrawn, but the protests continued and took on an increasingly violent form.

PressTV-Police, protesters clash in Hong Kong’s tourist district

Riot police fire teargas to disperse an unauthorized rally in a tourist district of Hong Kong.

"The plenary session calls for the entire party and peoples of all nationalities to unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with comrade Xi Jinping as the core," said the official communique.

"We must establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanism for safeguarding national security in (Hong Kong and Macao)," it added.

Speaking to reporters on the outcomes of that plenum on Friday, parliament official Shen Chunyao said Hong Kong was “of course” an important topic at the meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee's almost 400 members.

The party will “firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests, safeguard the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macau, and will not tolerate any challenges to the bottom line of ‘one country, two systems’,” he said.

Shen stressed that Beijing “will further improve the central government’s system of exercising full administrative power over the Special Administrative Regions in accordance with the constitution and the Basic Law,” which governs Hong Kong’s relations with the Chinese government.

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Hong Kong and Macau have been governed under a “one-country, two-system” model under Chinese sovereignty.

He further said that again China will "resolutely prevent and contain external forces from interfering in Hong Kong and Macau affairs and carrying out separatist, subversive, infiltration or destructive activities.”

The Chinese government says the United States and Britain have been fanning the flames of unrest in Hong Kong by supporting the protesters.

As the latest move, the US House of Representatives unanimously passed measures in mid-October to support the protesters in the city. China had repeatedly warned against the ratification of at least one bill, the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

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