The Commissioner’s Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong expressed strong dissatisfaction with and strong opposition to fallacious remarks made by certain public figures of the West who associate detained opposition activists and lawmakers in Hong Kong with so-called “human rights” issues to denigrate the city’s rule-of-law status. Such insidious efforts to interfere with justice in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are intolerable, if not despicable, for veteran politicians, who should uphold and glorify social justice in the international community.

The politicians who indulge themselves in anti-China rhetoric should know that manipulating public opinion about an ongoing trial amounts to blatant interference. Although some politicians with ulterior motives smear the implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong whenever chances permit, inflaming the public sentiment on an ongoing trial of the unofficial “primary election scheme” in 2020 is a tragic miscalculation. It is not acceptable to malign the NSL and whitewash a crime under the banner of “fighting for freedom”.

Hong Kong allows no foreign hostile force to undermine its rule of law, let alone trample on social justice with perverted ill-timing manipulation of public opinions. Facing the increasingly complex geopolitical situation, the government of the Special Administrative Region upholds the rule of law through thick and thin. The promulgation and implementation of the NSL have secured social stability and justice at all odds. The world has witnessed the constitutional order in the SAR being defended effectively by the city’s robust legal system and its high-caliber legal professionals. The 2022 WJP Rule of Law Index ranked Hong Kong 22nd in its general performance, being streets ahead of the United States (26th) in the overall index score; In social justice, Hong Kong (19th) also outperformed the United Kingdom (20th). The international community’s confidence in the rule of law in Hong Kong is solid and strong, the city can stand tall amid the diehard China bashers’ unfounded allegations and systematic denigration.

It has been common sense among the citizens that disrupting the SAR by interfering with its robust judiciary system is bound to fail. It has also been proved, with a long list of track records, that hostile intervention in Hong Kong’s internal affairs is doomed to no avail. The Hong Kong SAR government, with its resolution to safeguard “one country, two systems” and national security at all costs, is on the right track to long-term stability and prosperity, and the city now tolerates no unfounded denigration nor any hostile interference with the unspeakable intention to contain China.