Exercising of sovereign power warranted: China Daily editorial

In initiating reforms to improve the electoral system in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the National People's Congress, the highest organ of State power, is acting in line with its constitutional power and responsibility to help maintain the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and safeguard China's national sovereignty, security and development interests.

The need for the reforms had become glaringly obvious. The same being true for the national security law introduced in the SAR last summer.

The security law has effectively put an end to the months-long violent campaign, the so-called black revolution, in which advocacy of Hong Kong independence was prominent. Thanks to the introduction of the national security law, tranquility and order have been restored in Hong Kong. It has once again become one of the safest places in the world, with the street violence brought to an end. The law has put an end to the nightmare law-abiding Hong Kong residents endured during the months of violent rampages.

Now, the electoral reforms, approved by the NPC last week, will fully restore the law-based administration of the SAR, by ridding its governance system of those who do not support the motherland's resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong and who wish to impair Hong Kong's prosperity and stability. This will end the toxic activities that have paralyzed the legislature in recent years, which in turn has impaired the executive branch's ability to further develop Hong Kong's economy and tackle the deep-seated problems plaguing Hong Kong society.

Both the electoral system reforms and the national security law are guarantees that Hong Kong will regain stability, and the continuation of the "one country, two systems" framework under which it enjoys a high degree of autonomy. They will help advance the development of the SAR's democratic political system.

Some Western governments and politicians have denounced the law and the reforms, but their motives are glaringly obvious. They know full well that the Sino-UK Joint Declaration in no way denied China of its overall jurisdiction over Hong Kong, including the power to determine its political structure, of which the electoral system is a part. Nor does it obligate it to accommodate subversives in the SAR's organs of governance. The Joint Declaration was not like the Treaty of Nanking in which China ceded the territory of Hong Kong to the British under duress.

The parrot-like repetition of platitudes about democracy, freedom and civil rights is but virtue signaling by these anti-China Western politicians: Activities that subvert state power never fall into the scope of democracy, freedom or civil rights. Their words are overly ripe with hypocrisy and arrogance.