Wednesday August 21, 2019 3TOPNEWS
Separatists must realize unbreakable connectivity of two regions: expert
Crying for Kashmir
The Office of the Commissioner of China’s Min-
istry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Tuesday
expressed strong dissatisfaction and resolute op-
position to some US politicians’ arbitrary inter-
ference in Hong Kong affairs and attempt to use
resolution of China-US trade negotiations as a
threat.
“Some politicians on the US side are stub-
bornly obsessed with a Cold War mentality, he-
gemony and zero-sum way of thinking, and they
are confusing right and wrong, turning black
into white,” read the Office of the Commissioner
statement which came in response to remarks
made by US Vice President Mike Pence at the
Detroit Economic Club on Monday.
At the event, Pence said that for the US to
make a deal with China, Beijing needs to “honor
its commitments, beginning with the commit-
ment China made in 1984 to respect the integrity
of Hong Kong’s laws through the Sino-British
Joint Declaration.”
He claimed that the US administration will
continue to urge China to act in a “humanitarian
manner” and urged China and the demonstrators
in Hong Kong to resolve differences peacefully.
The Office of the Commissioner refuted his
remarks, saying that China’s central government
has consistently upheld the principles of the Dec-
laration including “one country, two systems” and
“Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong,” and has
strictly observed the Constitution and Basic Law,
and Hong Kong residents have enjoyed unprec-
edented rights and freedoms since Hong Kong
was returned to China 22 years ago.
According to the office, the HKSAR’s ranking
on the global Rule of Law index surged from 60th
in the 1996 to No.16 in 2018, higher than the US
ranking on the chart.
The rule of law is the core value that residents
of Hong Kong take great pride in, and is the cor-
ner stone of the region’s prosperity, which cannot
be allowed to be trampled, destroyed or slandered
by any foreign force, the statement said. This
echoes the Hong Kong government’s stance.Global TimesBy Chen Qingqing in Hong Kong
and Leng Shumei in BeijingHong Kong police arrested a local
resident Tuesday morning on suspi-
cion of stabbing three people, which
prompted some Hong Kong media to
sensationally cite so-called witnesses
identifying the suspect’s “Chinese
mainland accent” in a hyperbolic
move that experts say will only exac-
erbate tensions in the relationship be-
tween Hong Kong and the mainland.
The 50-year-old male suspect was
arrested about 3 pm Tuesday, Tse
Chun-chung, chief superintendent
of Hong Kong police public relations
branch, said at a press conference.
Tse stressed that police had
launched an investigation into the
case and would not indulge any crim-
inal behavior. Kong Wing-cheung,
senior superintendent of the branch,
noted that the suspect was a HongKong resident. Since the incident was
revealed, some Hong Kong media
have intentionally hyped information
from so-called witnesses saying the
suspect had a mainland accent.
Anti-government groups have
tried to mislead the public and turn
the incident into a gangster attack
related to the mainland. “As the situ-
ation in Hong Kong keeps escalat-
ing, anti-government groups are in-
tentionally making the incident big
to provoke the relationship between
Hong Kong and the mainland,” said
Zhang Dinghuai, a professor at the
Center for Basic Laws of Hong Kong
and Macao Special Administrative
Region of Shenzhen University.
The man was arrested on suspi-
cion of stabbing two women, aged
26 and 35, as well as a man, 24, in a
tunnel in Tseung Kwan O when anti-
government protests rocked the city.
He was caught at the Lo Wo bordercrossing trying to flee the city, accord-
ing to the Hong Kong Police Force.
Some media cited witnesses whose
identities could not be verified saying
the suspect was wearing a blue top,
implying he might be a member of
pro-government group. Blue ribbons
are associated with pro-establishment
groups that opposed the Occupy Cen-
tral protests in 2014.
Kwok Ka-ki, Hong Kong Civic
Party lawmaker, was reported saying
during a radio show that the sus-
pect aimed at creating “white terror”
through the incident, an apparent po-
litical intention.
This was groundless speculation,
experts from the mainland noted, be-
fore police release the results of their
official investigation.By Yang Sheng and Wang
CongWater, electricity, meat, veg-
etables and fruits: Hong Kong
largely depends on the Chinese
mainland for all these life ne-
cessities and countless other
resources, Chinese experts said
Tuesday as they stressed the
unbreakable connection of the
two regions.
In an interview with the Peo-
ple’s Daily overseas edition’s
new media platform Xiakedao
on Monday, a scholar joked
about cutting off the water sup-
ply to Hong Kong.
Zheng Yongnian, director
of the East Asian Institute at
the National University of Sin-
gapore, told Xiakedao that in
general, anti-mainland protest-ers and separatists won’t make
big trouble.
“A senior official in Singa-
pore said that you [the Chinese
mainland] just need to cut off
water to Hong Kong and then
everything would be settled, as
Singaporeans are very sensitive
about this... if Malaysia stopped
the water supply it would be-
come a big problem.”
Zheng added, “Of course,
this is just a joke. In fact... most
Hong Kong people understand
that they cannot separate them-
selves from the mainland.”
Unfortunately a few media
outlets took Zheng’s quotes out
of context, reporting “Zheng
Yongnian said cutting off the
water supply can resolve the
Hong Kong problem.”
Xiakedao and Zheng had torelease statements Tuesday to
condemn such distorted head-
lines which caused unneces-
sary misunderstanding.
“In fact, cutting off the wa-
ter and electric power supply to
Hong Kong is truly unnecessary
for solving the current problem
in Hong Kong as the central
government has enough capa-
bility and strength to use other
measures to deal with any kind
of situation,” said Tian Feilong,
an associate professor at Bei-
hang University in Beijing and
a Hong Kong expert.
Cutting off water and elec-
tric power will hurt all the
people in Hong Kong and not
all the people in Hong Kong are
hostile to the mainland, Tian
told the Global Times. “Many of
them are patriotic and reason-able and so it is total nonsense
for the mainland to hurt inno-
cent people only to crack down
on a group of extremists.”
Hong Kong relies predomi-
nantly on the mainland for a
wide range of daily essentials
from water to meat to fresh veg-
etables to electricity.
In the fiscal year 2017/18,
Hong Kong imported 664 mil-
lion cubic meters of water from
nearby Guangdong Province,
accounting for 67 percent of
its total consumption of about
992.6 million cubic meters, ac-
cording to the Water Supplies
Department of Hong Kong.
The rest came from rainfall
natural catchment.
Hong Kong also relies on
the mainland for its food, par-
ticularly fresh food supplies.Ninety-four percent of fresh
pork, 100 percent of fresh beef,
92 percent of vegetables and
66 percent of Hong Kong eggs
come from the mainland, ac-
cording to the Hong Kong food
and health bureau.
For example, on Monday
alone, the mainland supplied
1,451 pigs to Hong Kong, com-
pared to 221 locally sourced,
according to the agriculture,
fisheries and conservation de-
partment.
Hong Kong separatists or se-
cessionists should also realize
this and abandon their ridicu-
lous idea, Tian said. “Anyone
trying to separate Hong Kong
and the mainland can only get
failure as they have no idea
about the interconnection be-
tween the two regions.”HK life necessities depend on mainland
Hong Kong police arrest local suspect for stabbing 3
Pence’s remarks
reveal ‘hegemony’
Page Editor:
[email protected]Supporters of
the Tehreek-
Labaik
Pakistan party
shout slogans
during a
protest rally
in Karachi on
Tuesday as
they condemn
India for
stripping
the disputed
Kashmir
region of
its special
autonomy and
imposing a
lockdown (See
story on Page
8). Photo: AFP