Anti-China bias permeates Western media reports on the Occupy Central movement in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Singapore's Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam said.

Speaking in an interview published by the Singapore-based Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao on Saturday, Shanmugam said that reports in the Western media often claim that China is denying democracy and eroding the freedoms that helped Hong Kong become successful.

But the truth is that Hong Kong did not have a democratic system for 150 years under British rule; during that time, neither British nor Western media thought democracy was necessary for Hong Kong, Shanmugam was quoted as saying.