Visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi has reaffirmed that the affairs of Hong Kong fall within China's domestic affairs, in which no countries have the right to interfere, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in Washington on Sunday.

Yang clarified China's position on issues concerning Hong Kong during his talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday, Qin told reporters.

Yang voiced hope that the US side will be discreet with its words and deeds and refrain from supporting, in any form, such illegal activities as "Occupying Central," Qin said.

"We are resolutely opposed to all kinds of illegal activities that undermine Hong Kong's rule of law and social order and firmly support the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government in handling these in accordance with the law so as to safeguard Hong Kong's social stability," Yang was quoted as saying.

The decision on the election of a chief executive for Hong Kong by universal suffrage was made by the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee in line with the Basic Law of the HKSAR, Yang noted.

It adequately responded to opinions from all circles of Hong Kong society and complies with the region's realities, and is thus conducive to safeguarding China's national sovereignty, security and development interests as well as to Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability, he said.

Yang is in the US to prepare for US President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to China. Obama will also attend the informal leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Obama will meet on Nov 12 after a meeting of the APEC forum.

"The purpose of my visit to Boston and then to Washington is really to pave the ground for President Obama's visit to China in November and also for participation of the President in the APEC informal leadership meeting to be hosted by China," said Yang on Oct 18.

Yang noted that since Xi and Obama's meeting in Sunnylands last June, the two countries have decided to work to build this new model of major country relationship between China and the United States and have made "much progress".

"We believe that we should continue to work together to deepen our mutual trust and to put our efforts to the major areas of cooperation while on the basis of mutual respect we can properly handle any kind of difference between us," Yang said.

Yang and Kerry agreed to enhance cooperation on fighting the Ebola epidemic, Qin said.

Yang noted that Ebola, which continues to spread in West Africa, has become a threat to the public health and requires concerted efforts by the international community.

China and the United States have their respective advantages in fighting the deadly virus, Yang said.

He added that China is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the US as well as the international community to help the affected African countries.

"There are many areas that the United States and China are cooperating on, even as we have some differences that we try to manage effectively," Kerry said in Boston on Oct 18 before a second day of talks with Yang. Kerry hosted a dinner for Yang at his Boston townhouse on Oct 17.

Kerry listed areas of cooperation ranging from Afghanistan, the North Korea nuclear situation, Iran, climate change and counterterrorism, including the effort against Islamic State.

Yang expounded China's position on the cyber security issue at the talks with Kerry. Yang pointed out that China firmly opposes and cracks down on all forms of hacker attacks.

"Dialogue and cooperation between China and the US in the field of cyber security is faced with difficulty due to the wrong actions taken by the American side," Yang was quoted as saying. "The American side should take positive actions so as to create conditions for the restart of dialogue and cooperation between the two countries in the field of cyber security."

Apart from that, Yang also elaborated on China's principled positions on issues such as the South China Sea and human rights.

A senior State Department official said after Saturday's talks that the exchanges had been "candid" and went beyond a restatement of rhetorical positions. He stressed that the talks had been consultations rather than negotiations aimed at achieving concrete outcomes and the results would therefore be "incremental".

Nevertheless, the official said, the talks had been "an extremely substantive and productive encounter", and the informal atmosphere had broken with a tradition of heavily structured dialogue between the two countries.

Reuters contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at yuweizhang@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 10/20/2014 page1)