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November 19, 2019

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Pompeo’s hypocritical face on Hong Kong issue

By Guo Yage | 00:05 UTC+8 November 19, 2019 | Print Edition

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, it seems, has been fathoming new depths of disinformation and effrontery in badmouthing Beijing and its Hong Kong policy these days.

In a November 15 speech at the Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, the top US diplomat once again blasted China over Hong Kong, saying that the Communist Party of China is “inconsistent” with what it has promised regarding the policy of “one country, two systems.”

For the record, since Hong Kong’s return to China 22 years ago, China’s central government has been faithfully implementing the “one country, two systems” policy in strict accordance with the constitution and the Basic Law.

Since this June, Beijing has been consistent with its sturdy support to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and local police force to end violence and restore order in the city.

Yet certain US politicians like Pompeo have refused to acknowledge that fact.

As a matter of fact, the kind of “one country, two systems” they want the Chinese government to be consistent with is to deny Beijing’s due constitutional rights and sovereign responsibilities over part of its own territory. In their mind, Hong Kong’s autonomy and Beijing’s legitimate jurisdiction are mutually exclusive.

That is deliberate distortion. The policy endows Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy, but that autonomy only happens within the framework of one country. Any attempt to erode that principle will not be allowed.

Also in his remarks, Pompeo talked about his government’s intention to encourage the Hong Kong issue to be resolved in a “nonviolent” way.

If Washington is truly interested in ending violence in Hong Kong, it had better stop acting as the talisman of those Hong Kong separatists and rioters who have kept trashing the rule of law and disrupting social order with their violent acts.

Add fuel to the fire

Since June, violent protesters in Hong Kong have vandalized shops, attacked police officers, blocked roads, torched mass transit railway stations, turned universities into strongholds, forced classes to be suspended, and committed such horrendous crimes as stabbing and burning people who disagree with them.

Instead of encouraging those rioters to use nonviolent means, some US politicians like Pompeo have chosen to add fuel to the fire. They met Joshua Wong Chi-fung and other like-minded separatists, have been pushing the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, and are going to greater and greater lengths in their rumor-mongering campaign on the Hong Kong issue.

Some sanctimonious US lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even showed sympathy for the fanatic rioters and called their atrocities “a beautiful sight to behold,” while others defamed Hong Kong police and judicial bodies who have been strictly enforcing the law. Their practices of hypocrisy and double standard are too obvious to miss.

Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs and brook no interference from any foreign forces. And Beijing will continue to live up to its commitment to “one country, two systems.”

For those Pompeos and Pelosis, their most constructive contribution to returning peace and stability to Hong Kong can only be ending China-smearing and getting their hands off China’s domestic affairs.

The author is a Xinhua Writer.

Opinion


 

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