British Foreign Minister will meet with his French and German counterparts to discuss escalating tensions in Hong Kong on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers meeting.

"The foreign minister will use the visit to meet with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Dria and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to discuss common foreign policy challenges, including the escalation of Hong Kong protests," Office of British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab announced on November 19.

Supporters of Hong Kong protesters in the UK say that Raab should use meetings with his French, German counterparts in Brussels, Belgium on the sidelines of today's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting. to discuss the refugee situation and to promote independent investigations into the growing tension in Hong Kong.

Raab's meetings come two days after the European Union (EU) called on the Hong Kong government not to delay the county council elections scheduled for November 24.

"Dominic Raab should stand side by side with French and German partners to call for an independent investigation of the protests because this is the only viable path for a political solution," said Johnny Patterson, director of Hong. Kong Watch, a UK-based NGO.

Hong Kong was returned to mainland China by the United Kingdom on July 1, 1997, but was allowed to maintain its own legal and judicial system under the "one nation, two regime" model. He repeatedly expressed concern about Hong Kong protests and urged Beijing to comply with the commitments in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on special zone management plans.

However, Beijing in 2017 said the Sino-British Joint Declaration was a "document of the past" and was no longer of much practical value, and repeatedly asked Britain not to intervene in Hong Kong because it was a matter of China's internal.

Germany has granted asylum to two Hong Kong activists even though it was not involved in the June protests in the special zone to protest the extradition bill that will allow criminals to be tried in places where Hong Kong has no extradition treaty, including mainland China. The Hong Kong government in September withdrew the bill. Germany's foreign minister in September was criticized by China for meeting with Joshua Wong, the leader of the "umbrella" protest movement in Hong Kong.

Tensions escalated in Hong Kong from the start of the week before protesters occupied the university, then concentrated in Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) since November 17. The police have deployed forces around the school for more than three days and used rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons to prevent people from escaping without handing them over.

Chief Kwok Ka-chuen yesterday said 1,100 people were arrested and about 60-100 were still in PolyU after three days of stress. Most of them were arrested for riot, which could carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Hong Kong Special District Chief Carrie Lam called on protesters to stop using violence so that district council elections took place "promptly and fairly".

The US Senate on November 19 passed the Hong Kong Democracy and Human Rights Act, which aims to protect human rights in Hong Kong in the context of violent clashes between police and protesters who show no signs of ending. . China reacted angrily to the move and summoned the right of the US ambassador to China to protest, asking the US to take measures so that the bill would not become law.