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Hong Kong Will Surely Return to the Path of Prosper and Stable Development
Amb. Liu Yuxi, Head of Mission of the People's Republic of China to the African Union
2019-08-30 22:42

                                                                                   

In recent days, radical street violence in the Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong has been widely watched by the world. Like African countries, China experienced the bitter history of being the victim of aggression and colonization. After more than 100 years of British colonial rule since 1841, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. In order to achieve the common aspiration of unification of the Chinese nation, China proposed the creative "One Country, Two Systems" policy. Under this arrangement, the country is committed to the overall socialist system, and pledges to maintain Hong Kong's capitalist system under the prerequisite of the "One China" principle. Twenty-two years after its return, Hong Kong remains an important international financial, shipping and trading center, with GDP doubling its size on the back of 1996. The "One Country, Two systems" policy put in place the best institutional arrangement to maintain Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability.

As of today, Hong Kong has extradition agreements with 19 countries and/or regions, and has criminal/judicial cooperation arrangements with 30 countries and/or regions. However, Hong Kong has no such arrangements with mainland China, Macau and Taiwan. To remedy legal loopholes in a bid to combat crime and uphold the rule of law and justice, the Hong Kong SAR proposed to revise the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance. However, under the unwarranted accusation of eroding Hong Kong's rule of law, some opposition groups and radical elements instigated the people to go on the streets in the name of protesting the revision of the extradition bill.

The Hong Kong SAR decided to postpone the revision work until a broader social voice is heard. However, forces with ulterior motives kept escalating events, turning peaceful protest into outright violence and lawlessness. In recent weeks, criminals vandalized the Legislative Council, the Liaison Office of the Central Government in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Police Force, insulted the national flag and emblem, attacked police and civilians with fire and improvised petrol bombs, blocked airport and harassed passers-by. Such criminal acts challenge Hong Kong's rule of law and social order, threaten the security of life and property of Hong Kong people, undermine Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, and have crossed the bottom line of "One Country, Two Systems".

Some western countries keep fanning the flames on the sly, and western medias show their double standard in report. Some US political figures met with and endorsed the opposition figures in Hong Kong, and made public remarks to support the rioters in HK. They never hesitated to use heavy police and forces to suppress the "Occupy Wall Street" movement at home while beautifying violent crimes in China's Hong Kong as "seeking human rights and freedoms", distorting the law enforcement, fighting of crime and maintenance of social order by the Hong Kong police as "violent suppression". Western media selectively neglect those rioters' violence and attacking on police, and use "Hong Kong police fire tear gas to protesters again" as news title at every turn, ignoring the cause-effect logic. Many Chinese web users spontaneously reveal the truth through Twitter and Facebook, but end up in the ban of their personal account, which ironically show "shut up, we are defending the freedom of speech".

Recently, more and more people from all walks of life in Hong Kong speak out that they support Hong Kong SAR in taking more positive measures to push economy back to track, and call on solidarity of Hong Kong society to refuse violence, in order to resume peace and stability soon. On the other hand, the Chinese central government has enough ways and power to quell possible escalation of riot. I firmly believe the Hong Kong people will not be utilized and held hostage by those reactionary forces, Hong Kong will surely return to the path of prosper and stable development.

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