Why is West so keen on HK booksellers?

Source:Global Times Published: 2016-2-6 1:33:01

Hong Kong police said on Thursday that they have received a reply from the Guangdong provincial public security department, which confirmed that the three other Hong Kong booksellers related to Causeway Bay Books owner Gui Minhai's criminal case are also being held for investigation in the Chinese mainland, according to local media reports.

The European Parliament jumped out on Friday to criticize the Chinese government, demanding immediate release of these Hong Kong suspects.

US Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski on Wednesday said China has been cracking down on dissidents and even abducting them, and that the Obama administration is deeply concerned about it, VOA reported.

The Western media intensely covered the Hong Kong case on Friday, displaying photos of the arrested Hong Kong booksellers and the controversial political books the shop sells. The reports framed it as the Chinese government's attempt to crack down on freedom of the press in Hong Kong.

Such disproportional coverage and criticism clearly showed that some people in the West are happy to incite confrontation between Hong Kong people and the mainlanders, and damage the trust between the two sides.

Some Westerners said Beijing had broken the promise of One Country, Two Systems. This is ridiculous, because they have never shown appreciation of the One Country, Two Systems concept before.

In terms of Hong Kong issues, some Westerners have a fixed logic: Whatever the Chinese central government does is wrong. And they highly emphasize confrontations between Hong Kong and the mainland.

Everyone knows that Hong Kong, a British colony for decades, needs time to adapt to its new status as a special administrative region of China. The Basic Law has tried hard to lay out a reasonable arrangement for such progress. But it is also important that Hong Kong and the mainland should walk toward each other.

When disputes arise, we should remain cautious about the motivation behind the Western interference. The European Parliament, for example, knows little about the reality of China. The comments on China are almost always based on Western values and their own interests.

Most mainlanders are willing to see Hong Kong maintain its political system and culture as it was before its return to China in 1997. There is no desire to turn Hong Kong "red." Hong Kong's prosperity is in line with mainland society's interests. Do not listen to the US or EU's noises, as they pay more attention to the political benefit of such gestures than to the real welfare of the millions of Hong Kong residents.



Posted in: Editorial

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