The National Security Education Day celebrated last month reminded us that a stable and prosperous Hong Kong would not come naturally after the painful lesson of the 2019 riots.
While our motherland has been trying diligently to create a safe and stable environment for us to live in and prosper, another major state on the other side of the Pacific Ocean thinks otherwise. Instead of prioritizing efforts to curb gun violence at home which costs about 115 lives daily across the country, according to the Gun Violence Archive, the United States has chosen to create “trouble” for other developing countries to divert its own nationals’ discontent with poor governance.
The “Taiwan card” is one of the frequently used tools to contain China. The suggestion made by US Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy earlier was to arm every Taiwan household with a gun to defend against the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Beijing says that it will never give up the option of using force to have Taiwan returned to the motherland if all peaceful means fail.
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Ramaswamy’s proposal to introduce his country’s gun culture to Taiwan, if it should ever happen, could ruin the law and order of the island, and ultimately cause serious casualties if the PLA takes military action to complete the unification.
Xia’s message is very clear: Hong Kong is still facing hidden risks in national security, and many public activities could be easily hijacked by agitators to create chaos, so we have to remain vigilant against such risks
The US has fatal gun shootings every day. The Second Amendment to the country’s constitution protects its nationals’ right to keep and bear arms for self-defense, facilitating the sale of firearms. However, the deteriorating law and order situation in the country has forced many families to keep guns at home. Currently, the US has the highest per-capita gun ownership in the world with about 400 million guns for its 336 million people, meaning each person owns 1.2 guns on average. According to the Gun Violence Archive, as of May 1 at least 13,959 people have died from gun violence this year. There were over 40,000 fatal shooting incidents last year.
US police officers are always on alert and often react instantly by opening fire first whenever they encounter a suspect holding a gun, leading to many tragedies that could have been avoided. The entire nation is locked into a vicious cycle of gun violence.
Normally, the US should have tried every means to fix the “internal bleeding” that has been damaging the foundation of the country and tearing communities apart. This is a grave national security issue caused not by any foreign force but by Americans.
Although the Second Amendment protects the individual’s right to possess a gun at home for self-defense, however, more and more US nationals are absurdly being deprived of “the supreme right of the human being” — the right to life — because of gun abuse.
Instead of concentrating its efforts on tackling the domestic issue, the US government, in collaboration with its allies, is fond of meddling in other countries’ political systems, which are the choice of those particular countries, and should be fully respected under international law.
The US-led West has also used its powerful media to create an international illusion, portraying its “one person, one vote” model as the best political system to safeguard human rights and freedom.
The soft approach often comes with a “color revolution”. Political turbulence triggered by a “color revolution” often brings disastrous consequences to the affected country, allowing the US to reap handsome political and economic gains out of it.
Hong Kong was, fortunately, able to beat the “black-clad” riots in 2019, thanks to the implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong” and an electoral revamp. The city’s rule of law and order was eventually restored, paving the way for the return of stability and prosperity.
Today is yesterday’s pupil. Xia Baolong, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, who made an inspection trip to Hong Kong last month to promote national security education and give governance advice to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, stressed that the political turmoil of 2019 is a permanent scar that will never fade from Hong Kong’s history. He warned against a repeat of such chaos.
Xia’s message is very clear: Hong Kong is still facing hidden risks in national security, and many public activities could be easily hijacked by agitators to create chaos, so we have to remain vigilant against such risks.
Xia also talked about “one person, one vote”, saying that he did not think “one person, one vote” alone would ensure a quality democracy, and that democracy was not only about “voicing opposing views”. Indeed, this election model developed for more than 100 years by First World countries has become a matter of contention in recent decades over its decreasing efficiency and effectiveness. The US-triggered global financial tsunami in 2008, the overall poor pandemic control strategies, sluggish economic growth, massive interruption of public transport and falling standard of living due to frequent strikes and excessive civil liberties in the West have cast doubt on its effectiveness. More and more voices question whether “one person, one vote” is a panacea for solving all political and socioeconomic problems.
Xia also stressed that protest was not the only way of expressing opinions, and people from all walks of life should engage with authorities through consultation.
Chinese culture values consultation and mediation to resolve problems rather than using confrontational and competitive means because we cherish harmonious relationships. China is a large multiracial country so it needs a strong political party to enhance national unity, social integration and stability by encouraging cross-party cooperation and social harmony.
The political system China has adopted is multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The CPC holds the leading and ruling position and the other eight democratic parties participate in and deliberate on state affairs.
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The formulation and enactment of important policies and laws have to go through different levels of discussion, consultation, drafting, amendment and supervision in which concerned parties and non-affiliates also participate.
The whole-process people’s democracy practiced under the socialist political consultation system has enabled China to come up with highly feasible and consistent policies to achieve prominent improvement in its people’s living standards and remarkable advancement in science and technology as well as in other major areas over the past 40 years.
The “one country, two systems” policy allows Hong Kong to hold Western-style legislative elections. At the same time, it has the chance to learn the unique and successful political consultation system of the Chinese mainland.
Having seen the poor governance of major democracies, we certainly do not want Hong Kong to degenerate into a socially unstable, economically backward and life-threatening city.
The author, a Hong Kong-based freelance writer, is an adviser to the Hong Kong Association of Media Veterans.