BEIJING, Nov. 13 -- China on Wednesday urged the United States to immediately stop pushing bills related to Hong Kong, immediately stop supporting violent criminal activities, and immediately stop using Hong Kong to interfere in China's domestic affairs.
Jim Risch, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Tuesday he wanted the Senate to pass the legislation to support the protestors in Hong Kong.
"The Chinese side has lodged solemn representations with the U.S. side," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said, adding that what Hong Kong is facing is not the so-called issue of human rights and democracy at all, but the issue of stopping violence, ending chaos, restoring order and upholding the rule of law as soon as possible.
Geng told a press briefing that the U.S. lawmaker turned a blind eye to the massive violent activities of demonstrators and spoke out for the radical forces in Hong Kong, with the aim of undermining the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and thus containing China's development.
"China firmly opposes this," he said.
Noting the United States also has significant interests in Hong Kong, Geng said if the bills were to become law, it would not only harm China's interests and China-U.S. relations but also seriously harm the interests of the United States itself.
China will take strong countermeasures in response to wrongdoings by the United States and resolutely safeguard its own sovereignty, security and development interests, Geng added.
"Hong Kong is China's Hong Kong. Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs that brook no interferences by any foreign force. We urge the United States to grasp the situation and pull back before it's too late," Geng said.