On 2 July 2019, the Financial Times published a letter by Ms. Zeng Rong, Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the UK, on its unjustified comments on Hong Kong. The full text is as follows:

I would like to share my views on Gideon Rachman's column "Hong Kong, Taiwan and the future of China" (June 18th):

Under the British colonial rule, Hong Kong did not have the power of final adjudication which rested with the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. With Hong Kong's return to China in 1997, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region established the Court of Final Appeal which has the power of final adjudication. This is a part of Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy.

Since its return, Hong Kong's independent judicial power has been fully guaranteed. According to the Basic Law, Hong Kong has an independent judiciary and prosecutions are free from interference. Hong Kong's rule of law and the independence of the Judiciary have won worldwide recognition. According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2018, Hong Kong ranked eighth in judicial independence. According to the 2017 World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, Hong Kong scored as high as 94.

Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has seen rapid economic growth, continuous progress in the development of democracy and legal system and increasingly prosperous cultural undertakings. People of all ethnic groups in China enjoy extensive freedom and rights. We hope that the western media take a comprehensive and objective perspective when looking at China.

Zeng Rong

Spokesperson of the Chinese embassy

London