Focus on development and stability

Wang Zhimin, director of the Central People’s Government Liaison Office in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was invited to a luncheon hosted by the city’s Legislative Council on Monday, where he said in a speech that the mainstream popular will is to pursue development, stability and social harmony — and it is also the consensus among LegCo members.

He also expressed confidence in lawmakers’ willingness to do their best in contributing to upholding the Basic Law of the HKSAR and the “one country, two systems” principle as well as the country’s sovereignty, national security and development interests, while performing their duties as legislators of the HKSAR according to the Basic Law and existing Hong Kong laws.

Meetings between the head of the liaison office and LegCo members are held every year but this time more than 30 Hong Kong lawmakers had just come back from a three-day tour of five mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area over the weekend. Wang said he was really glad to learn that the LegCo delegation offered many suggestions during the trip. Apparently it was a fruitful visit in its own right. As shown on popular social media, public opinion in general has been mostly positive over the years toward efforts to bridge the gap between the mainland and the opposition camp in Hong Kong. The fact is Hong Kong residents overwhelmingly support all constructive endeavors aimed at enhancing long-term prosperity and stability of the nation, including the Hong Kong and Macao SARs.

In the past 20 years or so many Hong Kong residents have been baffled, if not infuriated, repeatedly by opposition parties’ failure to understand and respect public wishes for them to abandon their political bias and focus on contributing to the lasting well-being of Hong Kong society under “one country, two systems”.

Sometimes people were so frustrated by certain parties’ obsession with political stunts designed to aggravate social discord instead of building common understanding that they almost wished they had the power to kick the leading advocates of unlawful behavior out of Hong Kong.

Of course, the great majority of Hong Kong residents hope most of the opposition parties can and will heed public calls for sincere cooperation eventually.

The truth is the central government authorities have never demanded that the “pan-democrats” abandon their political belief. All Beijing asks of the opposition camp in Hong Kong all these years is focusing on healthy socio-economic development of the HKSAR as the first and foremost priority as desired by Hong Kong society. However, there is and will always be a bottom line, which is protecting the country’s sovereignty, national security and development interests. In other words, “one country” is the basis and prerequisite of “two systems” in the “one country, two systems” principle and will never change no matter what.