SCIO briefing on the position and views on the current situation of Hong Kong
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 28, 2019
Hong Kong Economic Times:
The ways that Hong Kong people are making their appeals have escalated since the controversy caused by the extradition bill nearly two months ago. Yesterday saw the largest-scale strike among workers, businesspeople and students as well as the "non-cooperation movement", as people asked the government to respond to their five major appeals. Would you please tell us what is the stance of the central government? Thank you.
Xu Luying:
Thanks for your question. We are closely observing the development of the so-called strike among workers, businesspeople and students on Aug. 5, which were actually instigated by Hong Kong's opposition. Let's take a look at what they have done. From dawn to noon, they blocked traffic arteries, obstructed the operation of subways, refused to fulfill their duties on flight handling, destroyed traffic lights, set up obstacles on roads and even cut electric wires to paralyze the traffic flow. So many subway lines and major transportation sections have been disabled, the traffic has been clogged and a massive number of flights – estimated at 235 in total - at Hong Kong International Airport have been canceled. Stores cannot open and commuters have been unable to reach their offices. All this undoubtedly impinged on the lives of ordinary local people and affected the social order. In the afternoon, some radicals encircled local police bureaus, attacking police officials and lighting fires, in a familiar style of violence they had adopted before. At night, a few extremists threw the national flag again into the sea. Within the past 30 hours, the spate of violence has once again verified two points:
First, the so-called "non-cooperation movement" and "strike of workers, businesspeople and students" instigated by the local opposition are by no means reasonable appeals. They are extremely violent criminal acts, severely sabotaging public order, infringing the public interest, challenging the fundamental principle of the "one country, two systems" and offending national dignity. All they hope to do is nothing but sabotaging, jeopardizing and undermining Hong Kong.
Second, their conduct is completely unwelcomed and totally defeated. In my opinion, the organizers of the so-called "non-cooperation movement" had a very ridiculous logic of a "strike." As far as they were concerned, the so-called "strike" was launched to cause massive traffic jams so that people could not get to their workplaces and many shops were unable to open their businesses, which, in their view, became part of the strike action. How on earth can that be called a strike? This must be a laughing stock around the world and a self-deceiving attempt which, actually, had achieved a small response.
Nevertheless, despite the chaos, we were impressed by another scene in the city. Many citizens left home much earlier in a bid to get to their work on time. Some local people dismantled the obstacles on the roads and others pushed the protestors away while passing through the gates of subways. Many local citizens as well as numerous political and social organizations, who love the country and love Hong Kong, condemned the series of acts. Some patriots hoisted the national flag after 11 p.m., last night. I don't know whether you have noted it or not, within an hour of the national flag being thrown a second time into the sea, these words became popular among the media from the Chinese mainland: "All of the 1.4 billion Chinese are national-flag bearers." In my opinion, the patriots in Hong Kong are not acting alone, because the 1.4 billion Chinese are standing in solidarity with them. The rioters and schemers in Hong Kong will not get support and their schemes are doomed to fail. We totally condemn the conduct of those who have sabotaged, destabilized and attempted to undermine Hong Kong at the cost of local stability and prosperity that concerns more than 7 million local residents. The central government will definitely not allow the future of Hong Kong to be jeopardized. We resolutely support the HKSAR government headed by Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and back strict law enforcement by Hong Kong police to bring those violators to justice, as soon as possible. Thank you.
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