Chinese People’s Liberation Army Forces Hong Kong Building (centre-left, formerly Prince of Wales Building, by Yomasro Lauij Rowuppe via Wikimedia Commons)

Since taking over the former British colony of Hong Kong in 1997, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has dismantled the freedoms and civil liberties that the city enjoyed, in violation of the Joint Declaration signed between London and Beijing in 1984.

In order to subdue Hong Kong, in June 2020 the CCP regime passed the National Security Law (NSL), a vaguely worded law that serves as a tool for punishing dissidents and critics.

Furthermore, the authorities have launched a propaganda and disinformation campaign to intimidate opponents, gain the support of those willing to accept CCP rule, and remould future generations.

Read also: The Rise and Decline of Hong Kong – From the British Colonial Era to the Chinese Communist Takeover

On June 12, nearly one year after the passage of the NSL, Luo Huining (骆惠宁), the head of the Chinese People’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong, the most senior CCP representative in the city, warned the public that anyone who opposes the CCP’s dictatorship is an “enemy”.

Luo made the remarks during a speech at a forum titled “The Chinese Communist Party and ‘One Country, Two Systems'”. The event was organized by the Liaison Office, the Office for Safeguarding National Security, the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Hong Kong, and the People’s Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison. These are the offices that represent the political and military power of the CCP regime in Hong Kong. The forum was also attended by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

Luo told the friendly audience of CCP officials:

In order to advance the project of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party must be upheld and safeguarded. History tells us that without the Chinese Communist Party there would be no New China, no Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, no ‘One Country, Two Systems’, and there would not have been a smooth return of Hong Kong [to China] and its subsequent prosperity and stability. The leadership position of the Chinese Communist Party has been chosen by history and by the people (推進“一國兩制”事業，必須堅持和維護中國共産黨的領導。歷史告訴我們，沒有共産黨就沒有新中國，就沒有中國特色社會主義，就沒有“一國兩制”，也就沒有香港的順利回歸和回歸後的繁榮穩定。中國共産黨的領導地位，是歷史和人民的選擇).

The Chinese Communist Party is the leader of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics as set forth in the constitution, and it also deserves the title of maker, leader, executor and defender of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ (中國共産黨是憲法規定的中國特色社會主義的領導者，也是當之無愧的“一國兩制”事業的創立者、領導者、踐行者和維護者) …

Those who call for the “end of one-party dictatorship”, those who deny the Party’s leadership role in the project of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, those who try to turn Hong Kong into a geopolitical chess piece, into a tool to contain China, into a bridgehead to infiltrate the mainland [of China], they damage the foundations of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, they are the real enemies of Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability (那些叫囂“結束一黨專政”、否定黨對“一國兩制”事業領導的人，那些企圖把香港作為地緣政治的棋子、遏制中國的工具、滲透內地橋頭堡的人，是在毀壞“一國兩制”制度根基，是香港繁榮穩定的真正大敵).

Luo’s speech is filled with lies and disinformation.

Hong Kong had been prosperous and stable for thirty years before the 1997 handover, and it was the CCP’s attempts to restrict freedoms and renege on its commitments which brought instability and turmoil to Hong Kong.

The CCP has not been chosen by history or the people. History is not an entity with agency, and the CCP does not allow the people to choose their leaders.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, or at least its opposition to the erosion of its traditional freedoms caused by the CCP, was not masterminded by foreign forces, but was an aspiration of a large number of Hong Kongers who took to the streets to defend the freedoms and rights the CCP had promised to preserve.

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