China warns Canada against granting asylum to Hong Kong 'criminals'

China has warned the Canadian government against granting asylum to Hong Kong "criminals," who fled a national security law after taking part in last year’s violent protests in the Chinese territory.

Chinese ambassador to the country, Cong Peiwu said on Thursday that granting political asylum to those people would amount to "interference in China's domestic affairs, and certainly it will embolden those violent criminals."

“We strongly urge the Canadian side not (to) grant so-called political asylum to those violent criminals in Hong Kong," Cong said in a video press conference in Ottawa.

His remarks came in reaction to a report that a Hong Kong couple had been granted refugee status in Canada.

Cong said this could jeopardize “the good health and safety of those 300,000 Canadian passport-holders in Hong Kong, and the large number of Canadian companies operating in Hong Kong."

Earlier this year, Canada joined the West in criticizing Beijing for imposing a new national security law for Hong Kong, which they say harms the city’s semi-autonomous status.

The new law punishes crimes of secession, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces with sentences of up to life in prison in Hong Kong.

Under the law, mainland security agencies are also officially based in Hong Kong for the first time since 1997, when the city’s rule returned from Britain to China.

SS