CHINA on Thursday deplored and strongly opposed the passing of the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 by U.S. congressional committees, urging the United States to stop interference in Hong Kong affairs.

The Act confuses right and wrong in total disregard of the facts, brazenly bolsters up violent radicals in Hong Kong and grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said in a statement released Thursday morning.

Since the return of Hong Kong to the motherland in 1997, policies including “one country, two systems,” “Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong” and a high degree of autonomy have been earnestly carried out, and Hong Kong residents’ rights and freedom have been fully guaranteed, Geng said.

But in the past three months, the situation in Hong Kong, initially from the fallout over revisions to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, has gone completely awry as radical forces and violent activists wantonly disturbed public order, destroyed public facilities and assaulted and injured police officers with the support and indulgence of external forces and the anti-China disruptors in Hong Kong.

“All these acts went far beyond normal peaceful demonstrations and assemblies, trampled on social morality, violated the baseline of the rule of law and challenged the bottom line of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle,” said Geng in the statement.

He said it has become a broad consensus for all walks of life in Hong Kong to stop the violence and restore order.

The Central Government of China firmly supports the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the Hong Kong police and the HKSAR judiciary in carrying out their duties in accordance with the law, said the spokesperson.

Geng said the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs persisted in reviewing and approving the Hong Kong-related act in disregard of the appeals of all sectors of Hong Kong society and basic norms of international relations, wantonly backing radical forces and violent activists in Hong Kong.  (Xinhua)