China's ambassador to Britain has warned that "Cold War warriors" want to damage relations between Beijing and Britain and spark a new conflict.
In an online press conference for British media Liu Xiaoming, acknowledged that the disagreements over human rights abuses in Xinjiang, tech giant Huawei, and Hong Kong had "seriously poisoned the atmosphere".
"A stronger China will make the world a more peaceful, stable and prosperous place. However, some British politicians cling to the Cold War mentality," he said.
"They play up the so-called 'China threat', see China as a hostile state, threaten a complete decoupling from China, and even clamour for a new cold war against China."
Beijing's ambassador, who spoke for around an hour in an address punctuated with propaganda videos, rejected claims of abuse against Uighur Muslims, describing claims by human rights groups as "the lies of the century".
Mr Liu said: "China respects UK sovereignty and has never interfered in the UK's internal affairs.
"It is important the UK will do the same - namely, respect China's sovereignty and stop interfering in Hong Kong's affairs, which are China's internal affairs, so as to avoid further damage to the China-UK relationship."
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