Hong Kong chief executive election 2022: Beijing, city government lash out at Google for taking down YouTube channel of candidate John Lee
- Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin says tech giant Google helping US government meddle in internal affairs of other countries
- City government issues statement expressing’ extreme outrage at any form of interference in the internal affairs of Hong Kong by foreign forces’
Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Thursday said the incident once again exposed “the hypocrisy and double standard” of the United States, which was bent on undermining free speech and fairness in cyberspace to achieve its political objectives.
“The US is interfering in Hong Kong affairs using different excuses and has evil intentions in destroying Hong Kong’s chief executive election,” he said, adding Google was also complicit. “It is completely wrong and unreasonable. We firmly oppose this.”
The US and the West should immediately stop their meddling, Wang warned, without indicating whether Beijing would take action in response.
Hours later, the Hong Kong government issued a statement expressing “resolute opposition” to Google’s termination of Lee’s channel.
“[The government] expresses extreme outrage at any form of interference in the internal affairs of Hong Kong by foreign forces, which includes affecting the smooth holding of the chief executive election through undermining the freedoms of speech and of information dissemination, as well as the fairness and impartiality of the internet,” a spokesman said.
The “so-called sanctions” imposed by the US were blatant interference in China’s internal affairs on the pretext of human rights, democracy and autonomy, he added.