中文
A flag-raising ceremony is held by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, at the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong, July 1, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua]
This is an editorial from China Daily.
Not surprisingly, politicians from the United Kingdom and the United States have used the occasion of the 25th anniversary of China's resuming the exercising of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1 to smear Beijing.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed Washington's concern at what he claimed was an "erosion of autonomy" in Hong Kong since its return to the motherland. Likewise, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said there had been "a steady erosion" of political and civil rights in the special administrative region.
This has been a constant refrain from politicians in the two countries over the past decade. They justify such remarks with the claim that the UK has a "historical responsibility" to Hong Kong. Deliberately misinterpreting the Sino-British Joint Declaration to support their patronizing neo-colonialist meddling in Hong Kong affairs.
But the UK has no sovereignty, governance or supervision rights over Hong Kong. After Hong Kong's return to the motherland on July 1, 1997, the rights and obligations relating to the UK in the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed between the two governments in 1984 were fully discharged. By repeatedly citing the Declaration, which is now just a historical document, the UK and the US clearly harbor the malicious intention of creating trouble for Hong Kong.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, eagerly seizing the opportunity to talk about other things rather than Northern Ireland, his government's immigration policy, and the scandals that he's mired in, said the UK government was "not giving up on Hong Kong". By that he presumably meant not giving up on the desire to use Hong Kong as an anti-China base to serve the West's strategic purpose of containing China's development.
This is evidenced in the fact that the UK and the US prominently hyped up a "color revolution" in the SAR, encouraging the 2019-rioters in the territory to pursue their "burn together" plan to turn the city and the Chinese mainland into a maelstrom of turmoil.
Yet, despite their efforts, the "Pearl of the Orient" still shines. And with patriots administering Hong Kong, the territory's future once again looks bright.
