Immediately before and after Hong Kong’s most high-profile national security trial — which involves 47 defendants charged with participating in a conspiracy to commit subversion — began on Monday, people who have a political axe to grind stepped up their efforts to draw “global attention” to the case by trying to associate it with “human rights”, “freedom” or “democracy” with the ultimate purpose of piling up pressure on the judges.
But those Beijing-bashers will find their stunts to be futile however hard they try to smear the judiciary and rule of law of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Judiciary will demonstrate to the world the robustness of the city’s rule of law and its judicial officers’ long-standing professionalism, which has helped the city to consistently remain high in the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index. In the 2022 Index, Hong Kong attained sixth ranking in East Asia and the Pacific and 22nd out of 140 countries and jurisdictions worldwide.
The new campaign to smear the National Security Law for Hong Kong (NSL), under which the 47 defendants are charged with subversion, will have surprised few. The security law and the special administrative region’s revamped electoral system have been the bete noire of many Western media outlets and politicians ever since they came into existence. They have wasted no opportunity vilifying the two measures. The trial of this high-profile national security case provides them with a new opportunity to make waves.
China-bashers, including Western politicians and mainstream media, have been peddling notions such as “political persecution”, “violation of human rights” or “political prisoners” in their relentless attempt to demonize the NSL. But no propaganda stunts can distort facts. The charges against the 47 individuals involved in the so-called “primary election” have nothing to do with “rights”, “freedom” or “democracy”.
The “primary election”, or “35-plus” plot, was a subversive scheme operated under the guise of “pursuing democracy”. The meticulous plot, as elaborated on by Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who masterminded the plot, entailed usurping the Legislative Council via manipulating an upcoming election, indiscriminately vetoing government bills to paralyze the administration by leveraging their control of the legislature, compelling the chief executive to resign, triggering a “bloody repression” by the central authorities, and thereafter lobbying foreign powers to impose political and economic sanctions on Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. Tai published his “35-plus” plot in the now-defunct Apple Daily on April 28, 2020, detailing his action plan, which he called “10 steps to mutual destruction”, for overthrowing the special administrative region government.
However hard the ideologically-driven Western media outlets and politicians are trying to smear the NSL and Hong Kong’s revamped electoral system, they cannot hide the fact that the two reforms have enhanced substantive democracy by returning a group of legislators who have people’s well-being, rather than some fancy ideological ideas including separatism, at heart, and facilitated the city’s transition from chaos to order
By any yardstick, subversion of state power is a serious offense in all jurisdictions and is dealt with accordingly. The NSL was promulgated and went into effect on June 30, 2020, and hence applied to the “primary election”, or the first step of the “35-plus” plot, which took place on July 11 and 12 in the same year. What’s more, the “primary election” went ahead despite earlier warnings from the HKSAR government that those involved might be subsequently charged with national security offenses. This, however, did not deter the plotters and participants from carrying out their plan; they defied the law as they were emboldened by a false sense of invulnerability, with the backing of their foreign patrons.
Twenty-nine of the 47 defenders, including Benny Tai, said they intended to plead guilty to conspiracy to subvert State power, under the NSL, in August 2022. Another two defendants who indicated earlier that they would contest their subversion charges recently changed their minds ahead of Monday’s trial. That nearly two-thirds of the defendants are ready to plead guilty is a slap in the face to those China-bashers who have been trying to defame Beijing and the HKSAR government by exploiting this case.
By viewing things from a bigger perspective, one can easily see that Hong Kong has been used by Washington and its Western allies as a card in their geopolitical strategy against China, in the same way that Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Taiwan, South China Sea, 5G cellular technology and other high-tech areas have been played repeatedly as cards.
“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. fig leaf. They always need a fig leaf to cover up their machinations to perpetuate an unwarranted hegemony, which they believe is being challenged by a stronger China. But people around the world have long realized that the West’s China-bashing campaign which also has Hong Kong in its crosshairs is not about democracy. Anti-China Western politicians and their pawns care not a whit 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 2019-20 riots. They also never complained that the 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 NSL and Hong Kong’s revamped electoral system, they cannot hide the fact that the two reforms have enhanced substantive democracy by returning a group of legislators who have people’s well-being, rather than some fancy ideological ideas including separatism, at heart, and facilitated the city’s transition from chaos to order.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
The author is a current affairs commentator.