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[[Liu Xiaoming]], PRC's ambassador to Britain, described Martin Lee and Anson Chan as "bent on undermining the stability of Hong Kong". He sent a letter to the Members of Parliament on 14 July, warned members against visiting Hong Kong. "I do not think your planned visit to Hong Kong is helpful and strongly advise you not make it," Liu wrote. A second letter, from the National People's Congress Foreign Affairs Committee, sent to the British committee in July, saying that the inquiry into post-handover Hong Kong by the committee would be seen as interference in China's internal affairs and called for it to be cancelled.<ref name="probe">{{cite news|title=Britain will 'keep an open mind' in probe of Hong Kong political reform|date=5 September 2014|first=Alice|last=Woodhouse|newspaper=South China Morning Post|url=http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1585839/british-lawmakers-release-angry-letters-china-demanding-end-hong-kong}}</ref> Undeterred by warnings from Beijing, Richard Ottaway told the ''[[Sunday Morning Post]]'': "We are planning to come in December and I have no reason to think that we won't be there." "The Hong Kong government, the Chinese government and the National People's Congress shouldn't necessarily think that we are automatically hostile," Ottaway said.<ref name="probe"/>
[[Chris Patten]], the last [[Governor of Hong Kong]] under the British rule, wrote in the ''[[Financial Times]]'' in September, questioning Britain’s “sense of honour” in failing to condemn China’s planned reforms in Hong Kong, which he said would introduce the kind of stage-managed democracy seen in Iran.<ref>{{cite news|date=2 September 2014|title=Patten criticises UK over failure to act on Hong Kong reforms|first1=George|last1=Parker|first2=Demetri|last2=Sevastopulo|newspaper=The Financial Times|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/28b917a8-329b-11e4-a5a2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3CztjXAY1}}</ref> He said that the UK had a “moral and political obligation” to defend full democracy in the city.<ref name="insult"/>
In the British government's first official response to China’s August 31 decision, they said they “welcome the confirmation that China’s objective is for the election of Hong Kong’s chief executive through universal suffrage.” Anson Chan criticised the UK government’s acceptance of China’s plan for limiting free elections in its former colony of Hong Kong is a “great insult.” “The statement will cause more offense in the minds of quite a number of people in Hong Kong than if the FCO has chosen to say nothing at all,” said Anson Chan. Martin Lee called the U.K. statement “shameful.” “The whole thing is empty talk,” Lee said. “They don’t even say whether they’re disappointed or not.”<ref name="insult">{{cite news|url=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-05/u-k-acceptance-of-hong-kong-election-limits-insult-chan-says.html|title=U.K. Accepting Hong Kong Election Limits ‘Insult,’ Chan Says|first1=Ting|last2=Shi|first2=Jasmin|last2= Wang|date=5 September 2014|work=Bloomberg}}</ref>
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