China warns against foreign interference as HK bans journalist

HONG KONG: China on Saturday 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.

The FT said on Friday 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.

"The Central Government firmly supports the SAR (Hong Kong) Government in handling the related matters in accordance with law," a spokesperson at China’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong said.

In a strident speech at the city’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC), where Mallet serves as vice president, Chan attacked China as an empire trying to "annex" and "destroy" Hong Kong. China’s foreign ministry had asked the club to pull the talk, but the FCC refused, arguing that all sides of a debate should be heard.

Rival protesters picketed the lunchtime event and the city’s former leader Leung Chun-ying called for the club to be evicted from its government-owned premises.