Democracy act ‘violates norms’
THE US Congress’ passage of the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act is typical “longarm jurisdiction” that violates the basic norms governing international relations, says Lawrence Tang Fei, a member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
“The US attempted to use the act to threaten the administration of the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), weaken the central government’s governance over the HKSAR and further contain China’s development by messing up Hong Kong,” said Tang, who is also the principal of Hong Kong’s Heung To Secondary School.
The Hong Kong society has been plunged into chaos and extremist violence continued to escalate after the now-withdrawn ordinance amendments concerning fugitives’ transfers sparked unrest in Hong Kong in June.
Against such backdrop, the passage of the act will further encourage rioters and their violent activities, said Tang, adding that such an act is a product of long-standing collusion between antiChina people seeking to disrupt Hong Kong and some anti-China forces in the US. For anti-China people seeking to disrupt Hong Kong, the relevant act could provide an “umbrella” for them, and for the anti-China political forces in the US, the act could serve as an important means to contain China by disrupting Hong Kong, he noted.
“Since its return to the motherland, Hong Kong has further expanded the extent of political freedom, democratic rights and implementation of the rule of law; while when Hong Kong was under the British colonial rule, the governors were entitled to absolute power over execution, legislation and jurisdiction,” Tang said.
“Some opposition media and politicians in Hong Kong with ulterior motives turned a blind eye to such positive changes and confounded right and wrong. And some young people were born and raised up after Hong Kong’s return to the motherland in 1997, thus have no experience of living under the colonial rule, and it is ridiculous for them to think that the Hong Kong people were given more freedom and democracy in the colonial era,” he said.
However, Tang pointed out that Hong Kong’s unique economic status was not a boon gifted by any foreign governments, rather it is fundamentally granted by the national Constitution, the Basic Law and the “one country, two systems” principle, and its economic status is widely recognised by the international community.
The US has major stakes in the financial and trading sectors in Hong Kong, Tang said. The act would only serve as a “double-edged sword”, he said, adding that should the US persisted in its own way, its business interests in Hong Kong were bound to be harmed.