China says it will respond resolutely if UK sanctions officials

London, England: China will respond resolutely to any attempt by Britain to sanction Chinese officials following the imposition of a security law in Hong Kong, its ambassador in London said on Sunday, July 19.

Earlier this month Britain introduced a new sanctions regime to target individuals it says are involved in human rights abuses or organised crime. Some lawmakers in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party have said the sanctions should be used to target Chinese officials.

"If UK government goes that far to impose sanctions on any individual in China, China will certainly make a resolute response to it," Liu Xiaoming told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show. Britain says the new national security law in Hong Kong breaches agreements made before the handover and that China is crushing the freedoms that have helped make Hong Kong one of the world's biggest financial hubs.

Speaking on the same programme, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was clear the Uighur minority in China had suffered abuses of their human rights. But Liu told the BBC that most Uighurs were living happily and that ethnic minorities in China were treated as equals.