Hong Kong part of China, only China knows how to handle situation: Pakistani senator

ISLAMABAD - Foreign interference in Hong Kong violates the international law and diplomatic norms, because Hong Kong is China's internal matter, a Pakistani Senator has said.

"China knows how to handle the situation (in Hong Kong) ... We support China on the policy of Hong Kong," Mushahid Hussain Syed, chairman of the Pakistani Senate's standing committee on foreign affairs told Xinhua on Saturday.

Pakistan fully supports stability and prosperity of China's Hong Kong and believes that it should not be undermined by any unrest, he said, adding that his country rejects any external interference in Hong Kong as it is an issue of China's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

The senator rebuked western media for negative propaganda on the situation in Hong Kong, saying the US media has a tradition of spreading fake news on the consent of its government.

"They (the western media) are trying to raise the temperature politically to put pressure on China and to destabilize China. So there is always something (in the US media's plan) called the 'China card,' something to put pressure on China ... Now it is Hong Kong," he said.

To misguide the world about the real situation in Hong Kong and create undue hype of the protests, western media reports are spreading false information by giving inflated figures of the number of the protestors, the senator said.

"The purpose is manipulated politically to convey messages and to convey a narrative, as if the whole of Hong Kong was in revolt, which is not true at all. They want to encourage and fan the flames of unrest, because it suits them," he said.

He also questioned the double standards of western social media giants Twitter and Facebook for their politically motivated censorship policy, under which they suspended hundreds of accounts unveiling real images of violence riots in Hong Kong.

Syed said some images of recent meetings between a US diplomat and Hong Kong's riot figures and separatists were released, which clearly showed the US involvement and interference in Hong Kong.

"We have seen this pattern is being followed in some of the color revolutions, which was used by the United States to deploy, to destabilize certain countries of the world, (as) the same pattern we see in Hong Kong."

Given the economic development of Hong Kong in the last 20 years, the "one country, two systems" policy is proved to be a success, Syed said.

Hong Kong's GDP reached nearly $360 billion in 2018, over twice that of 1996. The number of visitors to Hong Kong soared from 10.4 million in 1997 to more than 65 million in 2018.

"Now Hong Kong has new opportunities (brought by) the Belt and Road Initiative, as Hong Kong is part of the maritime silk road," he added.

"Hong Kong belongs to China, Hong Kong's future will feature prosperity, peace and progress," Syed said, adding that no one can separate Hong Kong from China.