China on Wednesday slammed international criticism over a controversial new national security law for Hong Kong, saying other countries should keep quiet.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Western governments and critics have warned the new law will curb the city\u2019s autonomy and undermine the \u201cOne Country, Two Systems\u201d policy meant to protect freedoms unseen on the mainland.<\/p>\n

But Beijing officials have rebuffed the criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s this got to do with you?\u201d said Zhang Xiaoming of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council at a press conference. \u201cIt\u2019s none of your business\u201d.<\/p>\n

Officials insisted there had been wide consultation with members of Hong Kong society and hit back at claims it was undermining Hong Kong\u2019s autonomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf what we want is one country, one system, it would have been simple,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are completely able to impose the criminal law, the criminal procedure and the national security law and other national laws on Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would we need to put so much effort into formulating a national security law tailor-made for Hong Kong?\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhang also insisted that the law \u2014 which he said cannot be applied retrospectively \u2014 was only to target \u201ca handful of criminals\u201d and \u201cnot the entire opposition camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of enacting Hong Kong\u2019s national security law is definitely not to target Hong Kong\u2019s opposition camp, pro-democracy camp, as the enemy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Instead, the One Country, Two Systems policy showed the government\u2019s \u201cpolitical tolerance\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

His comments come a day after Hong Kong pro-democracy party Demosisto announced it was disbanding, following the passing of the law.<\/p>\n

Zhang also lashed out at suggestions of punishment from other nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for\u2026 some countries now saying that they will impose severe sanctions on some Chinese officials, I think this is the logic of bandits.\u201d<\/p>\n

A group of 27 countries including Britain, France, Germany and Japan, made a rare oral rebuke of China at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday and urged Beijing to reconsider the law.<\/p>\n

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a separate briefing that 53 countries had made a joint statement at the council to \u201csupport China\u2019s policy on Hong Kong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA minority of Western countries including the United Kingdom, attacked and smeared China on Hong Kong-related issues,\u201d he said. \u201cThe anti-China performance of a few Western countries has failed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China on Wednesday slammed international criticism over a controversial new national security law for Hong Kong, saying other countries should keep quiet. Western governments and critics have warned the new law will curb the city\u2019s autonomy and undermine the \u201cOne Country, Two Systems\u201d policy meant to protect freedoms unseen on the mainland. But Beijing officials […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-45869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-foreign-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnntv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnntv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnntv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnntv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnntv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acnntv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45871,"href":"https:\/\/acnntv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45869\/revisions\/45871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnntv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnntv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnntv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}