The strong public support for the proposed changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system — evident in the results of a recent survey and the positive response from numerous political and civic groups to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s legislative actions on Tuesday — bodes well for the reform's success.

Nearly 70 percent of Hong Kong residents support the proposed electoral reform, according to a poll conducted by the Hong Kong Research Association from March 25-29. The support is extraordinarily strong, given the fact that political reform is always controversial everywhere in the world, particularly in Hong Kong, a place where consensus is among the rarest resources.

The critics of the electoral reform initiative, particularly those Western politicians and governments who have directed venom at the reform initiative ever since it was announced, must now stop their tirades against the reform if they are serious about promoting democracy, rather than merely using it as a handy guise to camouflage their hiden agenda.

The strong popular support for the electoral reform indicates that Hong Kong society in general recognizes the urgency of improving the city’s electoral system by fixing the loopholes glaringly exposed over the past several years, which pose palpable threats to the constitutional order of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the framework of “one country, two systems”, and thus to the well-being of Hong Kong people.

The strong support Hong Kong residents demonstrated for the electoral reform is also an indication that they do not buy the various theories peddled by Western politicians against the proposed changes, despite the fact that they have been so eloquent and painstaking in their campaign against the reform initiative. This is because Hong Kong people have realized that democratic development must proceed in a manner that suits the actual conditions, and that it cannot be dictated by the foreign forces that conceivably prioritize their own interests over Hong Kong’s, not to mention that they have an undisguised geopolitical strategy against China.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.