2024 RT Amination Banner.gif

China Daily

HongKong> Opinion> Content
Published: 20:49, May 26, 2022 | Updated: 13:33, May 28, 2022
EU should mind its own business
By Mark Pinkstone
Published:20:49, May 26, 2022 Updated:13:33, May 28, 2022 By Mark Pinkstone

Honestly, why can’t foreign entities just attend to their own problems and not interfere in China’s internal affairs, particularly Hong Kong affairs? Their China-bashing rhetoric is universally boring with the same script fitting all.

What is bad-mouthed in the United States about China and its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is repeated almost verbatim in Europe.

The latest tidbits of yellow propaganda come from the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, with his annual report on Hong Kong.

Mark Pinkstone

Within two months of his appointment in December 2019, Borrell flew to Washington for a briefing by then-US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, a rabid China-hater.

The annual report covers all the usual bases, nothing new, just updates of misinformation promulgated by the US and Western media. Arrests of “innocent” protesters, “mass migration” of businesspeople, National Security Law for Hong Kong implementation, modification of the Legislative Council, etc, are all included.

ALSO READ: HKSAR govt opposes unfounded remarks in EU report

The Commissioner’s Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region immediately issued a statement strongly disapproving and firmly rejecting the report, urging the EU to “stop its botched political performance”.

“The Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have the confidence, wisdom and ability to run affairs well not only on the mainland in which the socialist system is applied, but in Hong Kong, where the capitalist system is implemented.

Anyone taking public office anywhere in the world is required to take an oath of allegiance. Those who refused to take the oath or were disqualified for taking an incorrect oath were not patriots and had ulterior motives to disrupt the legislative or district agenda

They will also continue to promote Hong Kong’s democracy in a way consistent with the actual conditions of the HKSAR,” the commission spokesman said. He added that all EU interventions into Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs with condescension have exposed its out-and-out hypocrisy and double standards.

It is believed the EU report was largely compiled by the head of the European Union Office to Hong Kong and Macao, Thomas Gnocchi, and his team. The greater part of the report was devoted to the alleged “deterioration” of rights, freedoms and equal opportunities.

However, there is a background to all of those alleged “deteriorations”. Foreign forces, led by and in collusion with Washington politicians, infiltrated the very core of Hong Kong’s society. No target was left unturned. The rotten apples spread through the entire education system — from primary schools to universities — targeting the young and vulnerable.

ALSO READ: EU politicians urged to stop self-deceiving stunts

They were embedded in the legislature and political organizations and took control of some media outlets. Hong Kong was ransacked, and residents were frequently terrified by the black-clad rioters who were egged on and supported by the so-called pro-democracy activists and politicians during the months-long riots in 2019-20, widely known as the “black revolution”; and a bystander was even drenched in lighter fluid and set alight by the rioters.

All of these were condoned by the EU and its partners while they condemned riots and protests in their own countries. The purpose of this incursion was to undermine China on the world stage as the US sweated to maintain world dominance.


The EU report said the independence of Hong Kong’s judiciary remained an essential safeguard for upholding key rights and freedoms, noting that “there continued to be a certain level of confidence in the competence and integrity of judges and their readiness to uphold the rule of law”.

That just doesn’t tally with the EU report’s accusation of “deterioration” in rights. How could rights and freedoms have been encroached when the rule of law is upheld, judicial independence is intact, and judges remain competent and impartial? 

ALSO READ: Commissioner's office blasts EU politicians' HK criticism

No accused offender can be convicted and penalized in Hong Kong without going through the full process of fair and just trials.

What is equally difficult to understand is some of the issues highlighted by the EU report. For example, it had a go at the oath-taking bill, which added another element to the electoral overhaul.

The government introduced the Public Offices (Candidacy and Taking Up Offices) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2021, stipulating the requirement for public officers to take an oath when assuming office. As a result, a first batch of 214 district councilors resigned after media began to report that the government could pursue retroactive claims for salaries and allowances of those disqualified for failing to take the oath properly.

The authorities disqualified 49 “pro-democracy” district councilors, invalidating their oaths to uphold the Basic Law and bear allegiance to the HKSAR as “not genuine”, based on opinions they had previously expressed.

READ MORE: HKSAR govt opposes EU's meddling in HK's electoral affairs

What is wrong with this? Anyone taking public office anywhere in the world is required to take an oath of allegiance. Those who refused to take the oath or were disqualified for taking an incorrect oath were not patriots and had ulterior motives to disrupt the legislative or district agenda.


The author is a former chief information officer of the Hong Kong government, a PR and media consultant, and a veteran journalist.


Share this story

CHINA DAILY
HONG KONG NEWS
OPEN
Please click in the upper right corner to open it in your browser !