Washington still meddling in Hong Kong affairs: China Daily editorial

A US congressional report issued late last week that called for sanctions against 29 Hong Kong judges involved in the city's national security cases represents the latest attempt by the United States to weaken the rule of law in the special administrative region.

The report by the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China claimed that the National Security Law enforced in Hong Kong in 2020 in response to "pro-democracy demonstrations" had "created a parallel legal system that weakens judicial independence and strips criminal defendants of basic due process protections".

The claim does not hold water. The so-called pro-democracy demonstrations were nothing but social chaos orchestrated by Washington for the purpose of turning Hong Kong into a bridgehead for its China containment strategy. There is only one legal system in the SAR. It respects the legal rights and interests of all criminal defendants, and safeguards peace, stability and the rule of law in the city. It is the US that wants to make its own will "a parallel" set of rules for the city to follow.

The reason why the US lawmakers see the National Security Law, which was made, revised and executed following the will of the Hong Kong people, as a thorn in the flesh is because the law has effectively plugged the institutional loopholes the US had long taken advantage of to implant, direct and support its pawns in the SAR to do its bidding.

That order could be quickly restored in the city shortly after the law was enforced testifies to its effectiveness.

The US legislature body's issuing of such a baseless report constitutes a grave intervention in China's internal affairs, and also shows the US' reluctance to accept the fact that its good old days when it could waywardly manipulate the situation in Hong Kong through remote control of its puppets are gone.

The US lawmakers' appeal to the US government to sanction the Hong Kong judges who faithfully fulfill their duties in cases related to national security exposes their shamelessness in believing that the US government can interfere in the other countries' domestic judicial affairs.

Making other countries' business its own, and making its own business, if not failures, others' have always been a tactic employed by the US to maintain its global hegemony.

To truly show their concern for people in Hong Kong, the US lawmakers should suggest the US government immediately cease all interventions in the Hong Kong affairs, and abolish all the sanctions it has imposed on the city that directly harm the interests of the Hong Kong people.