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LONDON (AP) — A British parliamentary committee on Friday urged the U.K. government to be more outspoken in support of democracy in Hong Kong, warning that failing to do so could damage Britain's reputation there.
The Foreign Affairs Committee said in a report that Britain "can and should take a position" on democratic reforms in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong turned out for pro-democracy protests that rocked the city for 11 weeks last year. The student-led protesters occupied key streets in financial districts to demand the removal of restrictions in place for 2017 elections.
The report also criticized British officials for not summoning the Chinese ambassador after China banned members of the parliamentary committee from visiting Hong Kong in December.
Beijing's decision to treat the visit as interference in China's internal affairs "raises wider concerns about the state of U.K.-China relations," it said.
The committee chairman, Richard Ottaway, said it was part of a "troubling pattern" which had seen the high degree of autonomy which Hong Kong was supposed to enjoy under the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 coming under increasing pressure from Beijing.
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