TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China should respect Hong Kong’s autonomy in line with international agreements, European Council President Charles Michel said Tuesday (May 26).
According to a report by Reuters, the senior European Union official discussed the topic with Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. He said both shared the same view on Hong Kong and that neither were naïve about China’s behavior.
Michel said the EU attached “great importance” to Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy but also supported the “one country, two systems” formula, which was supposed to last for 50 years after the semi-autonomous city's handover to China in 1997.
The announcement last week at China’s National People’s Congress that the communist regime was drafting a national security law for the territory has been widely criticized as abandoning “one country, two systems” and interfering in Hong Kong’s autonomy.
While EU foreign ministers are scheduled to discuss the situation in Hong Kong at a meeting Friday (May 29), a spokeswoman for the European Commission said it was too early to discuss sanctions against China, Reuters reported.