China to not allow Hong Kong protests to be brought up at G20

Beijing would not allow the Hong Kong protests to be brought up at the G20 meeting, a top Chinese Foreign Ministry official has said, in response to the statement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicating that Donald Trump may raise the recent mass demonstrations with Xi Jinping during their meeting.

"We will not allow Hong Kong issues to be discussed at the G20 summit," CNN quoted Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zhang Jun Zhang, as saying on Sunday.

"Hong Kong affairs are Chinese domestic affairs, any foreign force has no right to interfere in this," Zhang added.

Xi and Trump are scheduled to meet on the sidelines of G20 summit in the Japanese city of Osaka, to be held from June 27 to 29.

The meeting holds significance as the US and China are locked in a bitter trade dispute, which has seen both the sides increasing tariffs on each other's imports after the earlier talks aimed at resolving the matter failed.

A series of mass protests were carried out in Hong Kong over the past two weeks against an extradition bill, which many fear could be used to deport political activists and dissidents to mainland China.

So far, public statements from China have been supportive of the bill and have blamed foreign forces for the widespread public protests.

"We want to say this loudly: Pull back the black hand you have shown. Hong Kong is China's domestic affair. You shouldn't interfere in Hong Kong," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday.