US tells China not to interfere with its journalists in HK

WASHINGTON: 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.