US tells China not to interfere with its journalists in HK

The US has warned China against interfering with American journalists working in Hong Kong, as a row between the two countries escalated.

The two sides have expelled each other's reporters in tit-for-tat moves over recent months as they trade barbs over press freedom and the coronavirus pandemic, with US President Donald Trump threatening to impose fresh trade tariffs.

"It has recently come to my attention that the Chinese government has threatened to interfere with the work of American journalists in Hong Kong," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Sunday.

"These journalists are members of a free press, not propaganda cadres."

Pompeo did not explicitly criticize China or give specific examples of what he was referring to, but the statement is the latest US response after Beijing expelled more than a dozen American reporters.

"Any decision impinging on Hong Kong's autonomy and freedoms as guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law would inevitably impact our assessment of One Country, Two Systems and the status of the territory," Pompeo said, referring to the arrangement under which Hong Kong was handed back to China from Britain in 1997.

It is designed to guarantee rights and freedoms in the semi-autonomous city.

"Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs," China said yesterday, without directly addressing or denying the allegations from Pompeo.

"No foreign government, organization, or individual has the right to interfere," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a regular press briefing.

Zhao also accused the US of "escalating its crackdown on the Chinese media" and "seriously interfering with the normal reporting activities of the Chinese media in the US."