London: Britain's parliament has rejected Chinese calls to scrap an inquiry into Hong Kong's progress towards democracy, a senior lawmaker said, warning that reforms there may violate a 1984 deal on the former British colony's sovereignty. The US has also backed universal suffrage in Hong Kong in comments likely to anger China.

Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997 under an agreement which said it could keep its wide-ranging freedoms and autonomy. But pro-democracy activists say a Chinese decision to tightly curb nominations for a 2017 leadership vote means Hong Kong risks ending up with a "fake" democracy.

Pro-democracy protesters take part in the rally for the beginning of Occupy Central movement outside Central Government Offices in Hong Kong. Credit:Getty Images

With tensions rising in the special administrative region, Britain's parliament launched an inquiry in July, prompting the Chinese ambassador to Britain and the National People's Congress Foreign Affairs committee to robustly demand it be shelved.

But Richard Ottaway, chairman of the British parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Tuesday that members of parliament would not heed the Chinese calls.