China warns US to stop 'disturbing' Hong Kong

China has accused US officials of trying to “disturb” Hong Kong through meddling in the city-state's affairs - a move that Beijing says would provoke its “bad reaction.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Friday that “certain people on the US side have always wanted to disturb Hong Kong."

US officials, he charged, were trying to "disturb its socio-economic development, disturb the normal order of its residents' lives, and even use the Hong Kong issue to interfere in China's internal affairs."

“This can only be futile,” he warned. “The only effect it will have is to cause Chinese people to go on alert and have a bad reaction."

The warning came after the US Department of State released a report on Wednesday, saying Hong Kong’s autonomy was “being eroded under expanded influence and interference from Beijing.”

Lu asserted that Hong Kong was a part of China and no other country had a right to interfere in its internal affairs.

Hong Kong that was a British colony was handed over to China back in 1997.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said on Thursday that the town has been exercising a high degree of autonomy “since the return to the motherland.”

China accuses Washington of meddling in its internal affairs as well as regional issues.

Last month, Beijing rejected a US request for an aircraft carrier group to make a port visit to Hong Kong.

China prevented the group, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, from docking despite a "long track record of successful port visits to Hong Kong," said the Pentagon.

SS