China vehemently objects to ‘foreign interference’ in visa denial row

UNI

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Beijing, Oct 7 (UNI) China warned foreign countries not to “interfere” over Hong Kong’s decision to effectively blacklist a senior Financial Times journalist, after the UK and other governments expressed alarm over eroding freedoms in the former British colony.

Victor Mallet, the FT’s Asia news editor and a British national, earned the ire of authorities for hosting a speech in August by Andy Chan, the leader of a tiny pro-independence political party, reported BBC.

The FT said that immigration authorities in Hong Kong had declined to renew Mallet’s visa, prompting the UK to request an “urgent explanation” for a decision described as unprecedented by rights groups and media organisations.

“No foreign country has any right to interfere”,a spokesperson at China’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong said.

“We have asked the Hong Kong government for an urgent explanation,” the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement addressing the visa denial.

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