China calls YouTube ‘tool’ for blocking next Hong Kong leader

Bloomberg

China said certain US companies were “political tools” after YouTube shut the campaign channel of John Lee, a former policeman in line to become Hong Kong’s next leader.
The move showed the US was making “a vicious attempt to intervene in Hong Kong affairs and sabotage the chief
executive election,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
China “asked the social media platform to respect the fairness and justice of the election,” Wang said, without
providing details of that interaction. He added that Beijing had a “stern warning for some Western forces: They should immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs.”
Lee was sanctioned in 2020 for his role in curtailing political freedoms under China’s national security law.