earlier today when asked about that trade deal chinese ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson reiterated china stands on a quality and mutual stance. regarding the china u.s. trade issue our stance is clear and consistent we hope the u.s. side will meet us halfway find a solution that is acceptable to both sides based on equality and mutual respect it serves the interests of both countries and the world. but the partial deal leaves the more controversial issues for later discussions this leaves us in beijing officials lawmakers and even trade experts doubting that a phase 2 deal will even be signed by next year a chinese official told reuters it's trump who wants to find these deals not us we can wait reuters also reported signing the phase one deal could slide into next year as beijing demands for removal of more tariffs beijing officials don't anticipate discussing a phase 2 deal before the u.s. election in part because they want to see if trump actually wins a 2nd term for more on the ongoing issues regarding the u.s. china trade war and the u.s. acquisitions that we just spoke about

chinese government. of course from the perspective of my ministry ministry of foreign affairs we're not in charge of investigating into this case just. but i think a lot of people would have to see their legitimacy. because some of them that's the thing is a bit every foreign minister i mean one is suspicious of the other disprove if statements are made from the highest portals of government or accusing another government of directly influencing dimensions you can see how that is a cause for consternation if it was just on the basis of suspicion and not proof so of course there are texts that were written in. just a simplified chinese character and which is not used in taiwan we used to traditional ones in there a certain way of the that the way they face things are different from what we face in taiwan so these are indirect you make quoted evidence or. hints but i think. from the our bureau of investigation they have addressed certain evidences that date in the china side the chinese side there were such things court contant farm. that has been traced and they create certain kind of information content and these

but on to in terms of an official response i mean how are the chinese government's going to respond to this. well the ministry of foreign affairs gives a briefing every day to foreign journalists and we're expecting that as per normal in about 2 hours time and no doubt they will be asked about these results and we should get some sort of official response from the minister of foreign affairs then the only comment we've had at all so far is from china's foreign minister he's in japan and he was asked about the election results and what he said was that quote hong kong is part of china no matter what happens in elections well that's really answering a question that no one is asking no one is saying is hong kong part of china after this of course it is the big question of course is what these elections say about people's attitudes towards the protests and about support for the violence that there has been in hong kong over recent months he didn't engage with that we'll see later whether the foreign ministry in beijing does but so far no official response on that at all ok andrew thomas for now i thank you very much indeed. highly

of the favorable trade status that washington grants the territory it also threatens sanctions against chinese officials who commit human rights abuses said china's foreign ministry has denounced the move accusing america of meddling in its internal affairs but hong kong's pro-democracy movement has welcomed it as a victory earlier on thursday they held a rally in gratitude for the new u.s. law the w.c. was there. today tens of thousands. celebrating the passage of the human rights and democracy act that in the. face that they were thanking the u.s. government. for activists in hong kong the. very bottom. of the impact. of this movement they understand that international. voting from home. this from washington correspondent public us welcome public tell us more about the bills that president trump signed today highfill well it's you know the human rights and democracy act which is what president trump a sign that it was actually introduced early in the protests in hong kong back in june and last month. of representatives overwhelmingly approved it now what it basically calls for are sanctions against chinese and hong kong officials who committed human rights or bruised busa is now as part of the new laws and the united states can actuall

of the favorable trade status that washington grants the territory it also threatened sanctions against chinese officials who commit human rights abuses that china's foreign ministry has denounced the movie using america of meddling in its internal affairs but hong kong pro-democracy hong kong's pro-democracy movement has welcomed it as a victory earlier on thursday they held a rally in gratitude for the new u.s. law the new u.s. law the w.'s sherry chan was there. today tens of thousands. of the human rights and democracy act. that they were thanking the u.s. government for passing this feel. very because they know that. they understand international. public. so tell us more about the bills that president trump signed today. well as we've just heard it's called the human rights and democracy act it's almost self-explanatory in some ways it was actually introduced early in the bill to prior to this in the protests in hong kong back in june and the house of representatives here in the u.s. actually overwhelmingly approved it last month the coals for essentially sanctions against chinese and hong kong officials who committed human rights abuses and what's also interesting which you mentioned is that the united states can basically revoke

threaten sanctions against chinese officials who commit human rights abuses in the territory china's foreign ministry denounced the move accusing america of meddling in its internal affairs comes pro-democracy movement welcomed the u.s. support. in order why a conservative opposition candidate. or has claimed victory after a days long count of the country's runoff election the new martinez the candidate for the country's ruling broad front of party has conceded defeat of the left wing broad front has been in power. for more than for the last 50 years. pressure on multiverse government so be investigation into the murder of journalist daphne caught on a glitzy is increasing our prime minister joseph morse cat has summoned his cabinet to urgent meeting earlier this week 3 senior political figures quit the cabinet because of the case one of them the prime minister's former chief of staff i keith . has now been questioned and has now been arrested and questioned according to multis media he was confronted with evidence provided by a prominent businessman that implicates him for weeks now protesters have called for the prime minister to step down accusing him of protecting hi

reacted angrily to the signing of the legislation this is what the spokesperson for the chinese foreign ministry had to say on. hong kong is china's hong kong. china's internal affairs no foreign government power has the right to intervene. this will only make the chinese people including all compound trips in hong kong more aware of the sinister intentions on nature of the united states it will only make the chinese people more united and committed the u.s. probably isn't doomed to fail. but. let's take a look now at some other stories making news around the world hungary and prosecutors have charged the captain of a cruise liner in connection with a deadly boat collision on the danube in may the ukrainian national was charged with misconduct leading to mass casualties and 35 counts of failing to provide help 27 people died nearly all of them tourists from south korea turkey says 2 of its troops have been killed in a mortar attack in the town of kali on the border with syria the mortar round was reportedly fired from syria near areas that turkey and syrian ally seized last month turkey says its forces retaliated. apple has agreed to russian demands to depict the cr

reacted angrily to the signing of the legislation this is what the spokesperson for the chinese foreign ministry had to say jungle. hong kong is china's hong kong and hong kong affairs are purely china's internal affairs no foreign government or power has the right to intervene this will only make the chinese people including our compound trips in hong kong more aware of the sinister intentions and had monic nature of the united states it will only make the chinese people more united and committed the us probably doomed to fail. and we have didn't use clifford couldn't with us he was a correspondent in china for over a decade hi clifford thanks for joining us here it is still unclear how exactly china will respond in terms of concrete action what's your analysis well i think looking at the verbal reaction it's kind of predictably angry they're talking about hedging money and they're using the language that of the struggle and they're talking about plots and they're clearly very angry about this they see that they see it as an attack on their internal affairs and that's a been a big that's always a big issue with china whenever there's comments about human rights or

we know the foreign ministry officials yesterday said, again accusing the u.s. of, quote-un quote, meddling in chinese affairsey said they would take strong countermeasures, that they would retaliate, reiterating that message. they summoned the u.s. ambassador to china for the second time this week, to get him -- give him a dressing down about some of these issues. the focus is whether or not it does derail these trade talks with the two sides looking to try to get an initial deal by the end of the year. there's this unofficial deadline in terms of those talks. we know both are continuing the conversation. the question is whether china puts in place measures to delay those conversations or takes der u.s.asures to hin businesses operating here. the rhetoric has been strong. we are awaiting the details when it comes to the action on the ground. paul: i guess china has to be careful in whatever actions it does take. what retaliatory tools are in the box that china could use? tom: it's a very difficult balancing act for china. when you look across all the data points, the economy is clearly under pressure. they a

the chinese foreign ministry calling the move a, quote, severe interference in hong kong affairs, serious violation ofrms governing international relations. shocking, the chinese are not so happy about pro-democracy protesters, laura. what's interesting to watch now as we're seeing is how much this is energizing the protesters in hong kong. from the south china morning post there in asia, a sense of unease hangs over hong kong as protesters prepare for anti-government rally near site of violent crash between radicals and police. this has certainly emboldened the protesters to get this real voice of support from president trump and not only from the president, but also from both chambers of congress that passed the law. laura: absolutely. you know, when you see those images, i mean, they really are so just incredible to watch. the american flags being flown and being waved around in hong kong, and some of the protesters who were out there on the streets waving those flags had something to say. here are some of them on thursday. >> i think that we have no -- we are not strong enough to address the chine

china's great course of rejuvenation so what the chinese foreign ministry is saying is that this is not just about hong kong this is about the u.s. meddling in internal chinese affairs and the same goes on to say that china will retaliate and say how but it says that china will tell you they are absolutely furious about this furious that the united states and indeed other countries but in this instance the united states involving itself in what they see as a purely domestic chinese issue and the fact that the u.s. has gone ahead despite very very strong language all week warning donald trump to ignore essentially the u.s. senate vote and veto this bill while they are absolutely furious about it we advise the u.s. it still says not to persist otherwise china will definitely retaliate these efforts their intentions it says are doomed. thank you for that andrew thomas bringing us reaction there from beijing. a not in a dramatic escalation of iraq's anti-government protests crowds have towards c.e. raney and consulates in the holy city of najaf they accused tehran affronting up iraq's government which they've been writing against for 2 months now they to be everything e

foreign ministry strongly condemned the senate's move and described what's been going on as america's cheap tricks it also has been urging the u.s. to from beijing's perspective stay out of chinese affairs and also threatening countermeasures. now this this all happens as the trade discussions are ongoing. there have been a lot of questions as to how hong kong is going to factor in some of my sources here said they don't believe the issue is going to override the talks just because from china's perspective and they believe from the u.s. perspective both sides don't want these issues to be linked however, there are a lot of question marks as you know about what's going to happen now next with the phase 1 trade agreement. there have been sources quoted by reuters quoting sources close to the white house that saying the deal could be pushed into next year because of uncertainty of a tariff rollback reuters is saying that president trump has apparently recognized that agreeing to a tariff rollback as beijing demands might not be seen as positive for the trump administration so he apparently wants to have more concessions from the chinese. but i can tell you from the chinese perspective ther

of the chinese foreign ministry. the chinese investor will show the outrage from the uk government involving hong kong. we hope the kick to be careful with its words to not interfere in hong kong affairscouple of hours ago and he says the circumstances relating to my former association with jeffrey epstein has become a major interruption to my family's work. we have not had a statement of this kind from the royal family recent yea rs kind from the royal family recent years and it is really significant in the number of ways, particularly in its tone, how it is addressed and individually all of the criticisms that came out of that bbc interview in the weekend, will he co—operate with the fbi, he has talked about feeling sympathy for the victims, he has addressed how this is impacting his day—to—day work so all of those areas in which he was criticised, he is now understanding why he was criticised in really responding those questions. we just do not hear the statements like this surrounding a scandal in which a member of the royal family would step back from their work. it is very different to their work. it is very different to the statement that we're used to hearing from buckingham p

chinese. in beijing authorities have already said that they will produce some sort of countermeasures to the act if it is passed on capitol hill. also, the ministry of foreign affairste last night, warning of retaliation if that bill passes. this is what marco rubio said in a statement. the world witnesses the people of hong kong standing up every day to defend their long-cherished freedoms against an increasingly aggressive beijing and hong kong government. now more than ever, the u.s. must send a clear message that the free world stands with hong kongers in their struggle. the president of china also sending a strong message speaking in brazil, he denounced the violence and said continued, radical crimes have seriously trampled on the rule of law. stopping violence on restoring order is hong kong's most urgent task. but again, there is no plan necessarily, other than the increased use of force by police to stop the violence. there is no political solution to resolve what many say is a political impasse. the whole situation was exasperated again yesterday by -- was exacerbated by the chief secretary yesterday, clarifying a lot of speculation about that late night,