The National Security Law for Hong Kong and the special administrative region’s revamped electoral system have been the bete noire of many Western media outlets and politicians since the law and new electoral system came into existence.
Recent stepped-up efforts to undermine Sunday’s Legislative Council election by dissuading voters from casting ballots on the day are part of the relentless anti-China crusade.
Like the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Taiwan and the South China Sea, as well as 5G and other high-tech areas, Hong Kong has been used by Washington as a card in its geopolitical strategy against China. These all are matters having to do with China’s core interests.
Without fail, “democracy” is the banner the China-bashers have hoisted every time they launched an offensive against Beijing, never mind that they have given “democracy” an unenviable epithet, i.e., a fig leaf. They always need a fig leaf to cover up their dirty laundry, or machinations to perpetuate an unwarranted hegemony, which they believe is being challenged by a rising China. But it turns out to be futile, as evidenced by Washington’s screwed-up “diplomatic boycott” of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Except for a few core allies of the United States, most countries around the world have shunned this “democracy” ploy.
People around the world are fully aware that Washington’s China-bashing campaign, which also has Hong Kong in its crosshairs, is not about democracy. Washington’s politicians and their pawns care not one bit for Hong Kong’s democracy, human rights or freedom. They did not utter a single word to condemn the black-clad rioters when the latter attacked civilians, police officers, the legislature chamber, court buildings and the mass transit system with petrol bombs and other weapons during the 2019 riots. Rather, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an anti-China vanguard in Washington, admiringly called Hong Kong’s street riot scenes “a beautiful sight to behold”. She gave the rioters a big morale boost, inadvertently or otherwise. Washington and its allies have also never complained that British denied Hong Kong people democracy until the last few years of their 150-plus years of rule in Hong Kong while democracy flourished in the United Kingdom.
However hard the ideologically driven Western media outlets and politicians are trying to smear the coming LegCo election to be held under Hong Kong’s revamped electoral system, they cannot hide the fact that it will enhance substantive democracy by returning a group of legislators who have people’s well-being, rather than some fancy ideological ideas including separatism, at heart. The diverse mix of candidates will ensure those who win out in the race are competent aside from being patriots.