DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Tanzanian government and the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) have called for non-interference in China's internal affairs in connection with the current situation in Hong Kong.
The appeal was made on Tuesday night at a reception here to celebrate the China-AALCO Exchange and Research Program on International Law entering its fifth year.
"We want to really speak to the world that this is an entirely internal affair of China," Augustine Mahiga, Tanzania's minister of constitutional and legal affairs, told his audience of ministers for foreign affairs and justice, and attorney generals from AALCO member states.
AALCO Secretary-General Kennedy Gastorn said some countries' recent gross interference in Hong Kong affairs, and threats to cancel economic and trade privileges of Hong Kong and sanction Hong Kong officials amounted to the breach of the principles of sovereign equality and non-intervention, which have been established as the basic principles of international law and norms governing international relations.
The UN Charter "states that the internal affairs of countries have to be left to the countries themselves to resolve," Hassan Abbasi, chief spokesperson for the Tanzanian government, told Xinhua recently.
Stressing Hong Kong is part of China, Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Wang Ke said "we will not allow any foreign force to interfere in Hong Kong's affairs, nor will we allow any 'color revolution' to take place in Hong Kong."
She said the central government of China firmly supports the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to adopt all necessary measures in accordance with the law to punish crimes of violence, maintain the rule of law and restore order.
"I believe that more countries could see through the nature of the Hong Kong issue, and work with China to uphold the basic principles of international law, including non-interference in other countries' internal affairs, and the basic norms governing international relations," said the Chinese envoy.
