Four people sanctioned over behavior on HKSAR

China has decided to impose sanctions on four individuals over their egregious behavior on Hong Kong issues and in response to the United States' gross interference in China's domestic affairs, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday.

The sanctions, effective from Monday, are applied to John Knaus, the senior director for Asian affairs at the National Endowment for Democracy, Manpreet Singh Anand, the Asia-Pacific program regional director at the National Democratic Institute, Crystal Rosario, head of the NDI's Hong Kong division, and Kelvin Sit, NDI program manager in Hong Kong.

Previously, the US has imposed sanctions on several officials of Chinese central government agencies responsible for Hong Kong affairs and officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government including HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

"Hong Kong belongs to China. The US should immediately stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs and stop interfering in China's internal affairs," Hua said, urging the US not to go further down the wrong path.

When asked about Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's demand for an apology for a social media post by ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian about Australian soldiers' killing of Afghan civilians, Hua said on Monday that the Australian government should make an official apology to the Afghan people.

According to Hua, it has been confirmed by a report of the Australian defense department that some Australian soldiers committed serious crimes in Afghanistan and the details are appalling and shocking.

The report detailed war crimes allegedly committed by Australian forces serving in Afghanistan, including many incidents involving the killing of prisoners and innocent civilians.

"The Australian side has been reacting so strongly to my colleague's post on Twitter. Does that mean that they think that the coldblooded murder of Afghan innocent civilians is justified while other people's condemnation of such crimes is unjustified? Afghan lives matter," she said.

Hua urged the Australian government to do some soul-searching, bring the culprits to justice and solemnly pledge that they will never repeat such crimes.

"Shouldn't the Australian government feel ashamed for sending their soldiers to Afghanistan? Shouldn't the Australian government feel ashamed for their soldiers committing such atrocities and killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan?" Hua said.