Hong Kong accuses Taiwan of interfering in local affairs as row over office closure heats up
- Taipei’s help to protesters and other actions in recent years have severely damaged ties, government says
- Hong Kong shut its de facto consulate on the island on Tuesday after a decade in operation
Taipei’s “provocative acts” went against a long-standing agreement between the sides to pursue cooperation and the deteriorating situation had forced the de facto consulate to shut amid fears over the safety of staff, a spokesman said on Friday.
“In recent years, Taiwan has grossly interfered in Hong Kong’s affairs on repeated occasions and created irretrievable damage to Hong Kong-Taiwan relations,” he said in a sharp escalation of the row.
Relations between the two sides have suffered following a fight over the extradition of a murder suspect and Taiwan’s embrace of anti-government protesters fleeing Hong Kong last year.
In an interview with the Post in June last year, Hong Kong security minister John Lee Ka-chiu claimed that Taiwanese and American interference had fanned the flames of protests in the city and played a role in the evolution of the social unrest.