LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom said on Wednesday that China's imposition of a security law on Hong Kong was a "clear and serious" violation of the Joint Declaration.


"We have very carefully now assessed the contents of this national security legislation since it was published last night," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Reuters.


"It constitutes a clear violation of the autonomy of Hong Kong, and a direct threat to the freedoms of its people, and therefore I'm afraid to say it is a clear and serious violation of the Joint Declaration treaty between the United Kingdom and China."


Hong Kong's autonomy was guaranteed under the "one country, two systems" agreement enshrined in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration signed by then Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.