A US State Department has branded China a "thuggish regime" for leaking personal details of an American diplomat who met Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters.
"I don't think that leaking an American diplomat's private information, pictures, names of their children, I don't think that is a formal protest, that is what a thuggish regime would do," spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told a news briefing on Thursday.
"That is not how a responsible nation would behave."
The comments come as China demands US diplomats based in Hong Kong "stop interfering" in the city's affairs, after reports that they met with pro-democracy activists.
The foreign ministry said it had expressed "strong dissatisfaction" with US authorities, citing local media reports that a US official from Hong Kong's US consulate general had met with a local "independence group".
In a statement Thursday, the ministry urged the diplomatic office to "immediately make a clean break with various anti-China rioters" and "stop interfering in Hong Kong's affairs immediately."
Protesters gather at Po Tsui Park on Sunday. Source: AAP
A report in Hong Kong newspaper Takungpao said there had been a meeting between members of the political party Demosisto - including prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong - and Julie Eadeh, political unit chief of the US consulate general in Hong Kong.
When contacted by AFP for comment, a State Department spokesperson said representatives of the US government "meet regularly with a wide cross section of people across Hong Kong and Macau."
Chinese police officers take part in a drill in Shenzhen in China's southern Guangdong province, across the border from Hong Kong. Source: Getty
"For example, the day of this particular meeting, our diplomats also met with both pro-establishment and pan-democratic camp legislators, as well as members of the American business community and the consular corps," said the spokesperson.
Beijing has increasingly pitched the anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous region as funded by the West, but has provided little evidence beyond supportive statements from some Western politicians.
Tensions are high in the Asian financial hub after two months of protests and clashes triggered by opposition to a planned extradition law that quickly evolved into a wider movement for democratic reforms.
Demosisto says it campaigns for more self-determination for Hong Kong but not independence.
Last year, the Hong Kong National Party was outlawed on the grounds it posed a security threat, the first such ban since 1997.
