Beijing Providing Strong Medicine, Hong Kong Should Make the Right Prescriptions

Beijing Providing Strong Medicine, Hong Kong Should Make the Right Prescriptions

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

November 7, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

The protests and demonstrations as a result of Hong Kong’s proposed amendment bill to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance have continued for nearly half a year; although the scale of the demonstrations has become smaller, the degree of violence, nevertheless, has escalated. The Hong Kong government could not use legal means to suppress them, nor could it use political means for communicating and resolving the crisis. The 4th Plenum of the 19^th CPC Central Committee adopted the decision regarding "erecting a wholesome legal system and implementation mechanism for the preservation of national security in the special administrative regions (SAR)”, and would use new legislation and enforcement mechanisms to resolve the Hong Kong question; Mainland President Xi Jinping subsequently received Hong Kong Chief Executive Carry Lam in Shanghai. It looks like the handling of the Hong Kong question will enter a new stage.

A reporter raised a question at the press conference of the 4^th Plenum, asking whether the CCP had concrete measures such as legislation by the National People’s Congress authorizing the national security system to operate in Hong Kong; Shen Chunyao, director for legal affairs in the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, did not clear-cutly reply, only elucidating on principles, stressing that the party central "will erect a more wholesome system to exercise the authority of comprehensive management and governance of the SARs in accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law", absolutely not condoning any acts challenging the bottom line of one country, two systems, resolutely curb external forces intervening in the affairs of Hong Kong and Macao, and "splittist, subversive, infiltration and sabotage activities"; his reply was overly principled and not sufficient to dissipate doubts.

However, the crux of the matter still lies with the Hong Kong government following Beijing’s providing “strong medicines”, if the Hong Kong government adopts a hardened attitude, ramming in the arenas of legal construction and implementation, then it may be anticipated that Hong Kong's current protests and demonstrations would turn more acute and the dispute over whether the "two systems" is wholesome would escalate into a question of whether "one country" would be accepted. The Hong Kong government should "make the right prescriptions", employing more resources to solve the problem of street violence, expanding communication and carry out smoothly the district council elections in November, holding dialogues with Hong Kong citizens for planning the road map and timetable for the two “direct elections”, allowing Hong Kong people to restore confidence in Hong Kong’s future, as well as jumping on the development project of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

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