The diplomatic spat between China and the United Kingdom spilled into the open this week, after Beijing criticized the British government for "gross interference" in the Hong Kong protests.

The Chinese ambassador to the U.K. Liu Xiaoming said Wednesday that the British government had "issued inappropriate statements, intervened in Hong Kong affairs and encouraged violent lawbreakers," according to a CNBC translation.

He said he was "disappointed" with British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt whom he said had "expressed support for the lawbreakers."

Beijing firmly opposed the U.K.'s "gross interference" in China's internal affairs, Liu said at a press conference in London. "I think Foreign Secretary Hunt is dead wrong about freedom. This is not a question of freedom."

For nearly three weeks, political tensions in Hong Kong have escalated over a proposed extradition bill that would allow those arrested in the territory to be sent to mainland China for trial. Hong Kong citizens were concerned that their civil rights could be slowly eroded under Beijing.

Responding to violence that broke out in Hong Kong when a group of protesters stormed a government building, Hunt said on Tuesday that the territory's government should "listen to the legitimate concerns of the people of Hong Kong about their freedoms."

Hunt defended himself on Thursday, saying: "I was not supporting the violence in Hong Kong."

"Let me clear what I said. I said that I condemned, and we as the United Kingdom, condemn all violence and that people who supported the pro-democracy demonstrators would have been very dismayed by the scenes they saw," Hunt told BBC radio, according to Reuters.