The main representative of the Chinese government in Hong Kong said on Saturday people trying to turn the city into a "pawn in geopolitics" were the "real enemies" and Beijing was the true defender of the city's special status.
Luo Huining, director of China's Hong Kong Liaison Office, told a forum that the financial hub, a former British colony handed over to China in 1997, remained one of the world's most competitive economies, the South China Morning Post reported.
"Those trying to turn Hong Kong into a pawn in geopolitics, a tool in curbing China, as well as a bridgehead for infiltrating the mainland, are destroying the foundation of one country, two systems," Luo said, referring to the formula agreed when Britain handed the city back aimed at preserving its freedoms and role as a financial hub.
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