Britain will not 'look away' from Hong Kong responsibilities, says Raab

Britain will not look away from its responsibilities to Hong Kong, foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday, repeating London's offer of extended visa rights in response to China's push to impose a new law in the former British colony.

"If China follows through with this national security legislation ... we will give those people who hold BNO passports (British National Overseas' passports) the right to come to the UK," Raab told the BBC, adding that only "a fraction of them would actually come".

"We are not going to turn a blind eye, we are not going to look away from our responsbilities to the people of Hong Kong."

In other news, China's state media and the government of Hong Kong lashed out on Sunday at U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to end Hong Kong's special status if Beijing imposes new national security laws on the city, which is bracing for fresh protests.

Trump on Friday pledged to "take action to revoke Hong Kong's preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory", and to impose sanctions on unspecified individuals over Beijing's new laws on the Asian financial centre.

But China's state media pushed back, saying this would hurt the United States more than China.

"The baton of sanctions that the United States is brandishing will not scare Hong Kong and will not bring China down," China's Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, wrote in a commentary. It used the pen name "Zhong Sheng", meaning "Voice of China", often used to give the paper's view on foreign policy issues.