Editor's Note: Following is excerpted translation of a news analysis published in Chinese by Xinhua News Agency on Friday.

Last year, Hong Kong was hit hard by a political storm that used the since-withdrawn extradition law amendment bill as an excuse. Orchestrated and conducted by external hostile forces, it has seriously affected Hong Kong's rule of law, harmed public safety and livelihoods, and badly hurt the economy. It also challenged the "one country, two systems" principle while posing a grave threat to the country's sovereignty, national security and development interests.

The extradition law amendment bill was proposed to facilitate the legal procedures regarding the transfer of a murder suspect with the Taiwan authorities. Chan Tong-kai, a Hong Kong resident, was accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend and disposing of her body in Taiwan before fleeing back to Hong Kong in February 2018. He was soon locked up, waiting to be extradited to Taiwan to face justice. However, the humanitarian concern of this piece of legislation was somehow lost on some Hong Kong people.

Hong Kong society has always valued the rule of law, which is why numerous people were shocked by the hateful abuse some local residents vented at the police, who have shown remarkable restraint when confronted by violent protesters clad in black. How were these Hong Kong people misled into such a trap without realizing it?

Some young people in Hong Kong tend to blame the mainland for their diminished career opportunities caused by globalization of market economy, without realizing a lot of opportunities are appearing on the other side of the boundary in the north. It would be such a great shame for anyone to watch opportunities for career development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area slip away without a try

The first trick is years of hoodwinking and brainwashing through "civic education" and media propaganda to cultivate a fear of the mainland.

When handling Chan’s murder case, Hong Kong authorities found their hands were tied due to lack of an extradition agreement with Taiwan. In order to maintain the rule of law and plug this legal loophole, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government drafted the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019, commonly referred to as the "extradition law amendment bill".

The opposition camp and especially ultra-radical groups seized this opportunity to launch an all-out campaign against the SAR government under the guise of opposing the extradition bill. Not only did they keep the campaign of violence and destruction going after the government halted and eventually withdrew the proposed legislation, they stepped up violent attacks against police officers guarding government offices and public properties while committing serious criminal vandalism. They also intensified advocacy of Hong Kong independence, accompanied by repeated attacks and vandalism of the headquarters of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR, desecration of the national flag, national emblem and the HKSAR emblem to show their hostility and defiance toward the sovereign state and betrayal of the "one country, two systems" principle.

The "Pearl of the Orient", long admired around the world, became shrouded in a black storm of unrest.

Among the leading opponents of the extradition bill were Martin Lee Chu-ming and Anson Chan Fang On-sang. Lee openly urged the SAR government to discuss a rendition agreement with mainland authorities back in the 1990s. Chan, as the very first chief secretary for administration of the HKSAR, promised she would introduce such a bill to amend the extradition code.

Both did an about-face on this issue. There must be a very good reason for these two leading figures of the opposition camp to go back on their word. Of course, they were well aware of the fact many Hong Kong residents knew little about the law and judicial system on the mainland. That is why they mounted a rumormongering campaign to scare Hong Kong society into believing their lies and tall tales. And a wave of popular panic ensued.

The following mass protests may seem spontaneous, but the timing was definitely premeditated. It is not hard at all to understand that something of such a scale and sophistication requires tremendous resources, years of strategizing, preparation and meticulous execution by the masterminds behind the scenes.

Tung Chee-hwa, vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee and the first chief executive of the HKSAR, said that the ultimate goal of the anti-extradition-bill campaign is to turn Hong Kong into a battleground for international intrigue and conspiracies, establishing an outpost for anti-China forces to obstruct China's peaceful rise.

Since July 1997, the opposition camp in Hong Kong, planted and nurtured by US-led Western forces, has been doing its foreign masters' bidding, misinterpreting the Basic Law and "one country, two systems", among other things, in a bid to dilute Hong Kong compatriots' affinity to the nation. 

The first of such openly unconstitutional campaigns took place in 2003 with the proposed national security legislation according to Article 23 of the Basic Law as an excuse. That was followed by a protest movement against "national education classes" the SAR government planned to introduce in public schools in 2012. Then came the illegal movement of "Occupy Central", which lasted for 79 days in the fall of 2014. As a matter of fact, a host of destabilizing factors were already stirring in Hong Kong society before the latest anti-establishment political unrest started in 2019 in the name of anti-extradition bill.

From initiating the anti-extradition-bill protest campaign to switching to widespread violence and destruction, a high-profile chorus of leading Western politicians, led by senior US federal officials and lawmakers, provided their proxies in Hong Kong with unreserved moral support as well as narrative pointers, not only to boost the morale of the opposition camp but to further mislead the public as much as they could.

Then-US consul general to Hong Kong Kurt Tong joined a smear campaign against the extradition bill by publicly belittling the mainland's (civil law) statutory framework in comparison to Hong Kong's. He insinuated that the extradition bill would scare international investors away from Hong Kong once the bill becomes a law, and will erode the international community's confidence in the city.

The last Hong Kong governor, Chris Patten, went further by accusing the bill of removing the only "firewall" between Hong Kong and the mainland, putting Hong Kong residents in danger of becoming “prey to mainland law” and threatening Hong Kong’s status as an international trade hub.

Another trick comes in the form of distorting reality with false accusations.

Throughout the unrest, its instigators have pulled no punches in an attempt to rally as many local residents as possible with constant brainwashing using twisted values. It obviously worked on many young people as many of them took part in street violence, criminal vandalism, looting, arson and even murder in broad daylight. As a result, the city was plunged into months of violent terror and widespread fear for personal safety and even lives.

The person directing and spearheading the insidious propaganda offensive is none other than Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who has been the main conduit of overseas financial support for the opposition camp for years, as well as the leading mouthpiece in the shape of his Next Media Group and Apple Daily in particular, which is responsible for most rumor- and hate-mongering noises relentlessly poisoning many people's minds.

Local media entities controlled or influenced by the Western powers-commanded opposition camp in Hong Kong have fabricated and spread an astronomical amount of slanderous "news" and opinions targeting the SAR government. Some of them are also long-term detractors of the central government through vicious and groundless verbal attacks peppered with advocacy of Hong Kong independence and self-determination.

Throughout the illegal campaign, the opposition camp, funded and commanded by foreign forces, kept filling people's minds with such dangerous ideas as "break the law to achieve justice" and "civil disobedience" mixed with a host of anti-social values in an attempt to turn as many people as possible into immoral and unthinking puppets.

Yet another trick assumes the form of divisive rhetoric aimed at tearing society apart.

The opposition camp in Hong Kong is well-versed in populist manipulation by fueling various conflicts, especially hate-mongering speech designed to sow contempt among Hong Kong residents toward the motherland and incite rebellious impulses against "one country, two systems". Such populist mental conditioning typically blames "one country" for any and every undesirable development in Hong Kong, be it economic, cultural, habitual or ideological, so as to convince the public that "one country, two systems" does not work.

In order to breed resistance against the country, the anti-China forces in Hong Kong have gone out of their way to blame "one country, two systems" for Hong Kong's socioeconomic, structural defects and cultivate prejudice against the mainland. By doing so, they have hoodwinked many under-informed local residents into hating the SAR government as well as the central government for all their personal problems and consequently attacking "one country, two systems" mindlessly.

Some young people in Hong Kong tend to blame the mainland for their diminished career opportunities caused by globalization of market economy, without realizing a lot of opportunities are appearing on the other side of the boundary in the north. It would be such a great shame for anyone to watch opportunities for career development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area slip away without a try. Quite often a person is only one step away from the path to a bright future.