China blasts US for seeking UN meeting on national security legislation for Hong Kong

BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday slammed the United States for demanding a video conference by the UN Security Council on national security legislation for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), calling the U.S. demand "utter nonsense" and urging Washington to "immediately stop the meaningless political maneuvers."

"This is utter nonsense and making trouble out of nothing," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a daily press briefing.

Zhao stressed that the HKSAR is a special administrative region of China and a local administrative region directly under the administration of the Chinese central government.

Establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security is for defending national sovereignty, security and development interests and for the steady implementation of "one country, two systems" policy, said Zhao.

"This is purely China's internal affair, and no foreign country has the right to interfere," he said.

Noting that the duty of the UN Security Council is to safeguard international peace and stability, Zhao said the national security legislation for the HKSAR is not within the purview of the responsibilities of the UN Security Council.

Non-interference in internal affairs is one of the fundamental principles of the UN Charter and a basic norm of international relations, said Zhao.

"The U.S. side blatantly interfered in China's internal affairs and wantonly undermined the basic norms of international relations by requesting a meeting on a Hong Kong-related issue at the UN Security Council," said Zhao.

"China has all the reasons to firmly oppose it and their attempts are doomed to fail," he said.

The UN Security Council is not a tool that can be manipulated by the United States. China and other countries which believe in justice will not allow the United States to hold the UN Security Council hostage for its own political purposes, Zhao said.

"We urge the United States to immediately cease these meaningless political maneuvers and do things that are beneficial to the international community," Zhao said.