CHINA’S Foreign Ministry blamed the latest series of violent protests in Hong Kong on US officials yesterday.

The often bloody protests have escalated across Hong Kong over the past week against a Bill, already pronounced “dead” by city leader Carrie Lam, that would allow citizens to be extradited to stand trial in courts on the Chinese mainland.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “We can see that US officials are even behind such incidents.

“So can the officials tell the world what role did they play and what are their aims?”

Groups of men in white T-shirts, suspected to be linked to Hong Kong criminal gangs, assaulted pro-democracy protesters on Sunday after Beijing’s main office in the city was vandalised.

Ms Chunying said China would not tolerate any interference from the US and Hong Kong’s former British colonial rulers.

“The US should know one thing, that Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong, and we do not allow any foreign interference,” she said.

“We advise the US to withdraw their black hands.”

Protesters in Hong Kong resent what they see as Beijing’s creeping control into the city. 

But China has warned that the violent protests over the proposed legislation present an “undisguised challenge” to the 1997 “one country, two systems” formula under which it is ruled.

Ms Chunying also damned US sanctions against Chinese oil companies as “illegal.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced sanctions on oil trader Zhuhai Zhenrong and its chief executive Li Youmin as part of a “maximum pressure campaign” for trading in Iranian crude oil.