Commentary: American insolence, paranoia will not alter Hong Kong's trend toward stability

BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The White House on Wednesday extended the so-called "national emergency with respect to Hong Kong" as part of U.S. sanctions on China. Such blatant interference in China's internal affairs has once again exposed U.S. insolence in defending its self-proclaimed supremacy and its deep-rooted paranoia to sow instability worldwide.

A White House notice claimed that the "national emergency," first declared on July 14, 2020, was extended for one year because the situation with respect to Hong Kong, including China's actions, "continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States."

The unscrupulous U.S. sanctions over Hong Kong through legislative and administrative means have seriously jeopardized China's sovereignty, security and development interests and grossly trampled on international law and the basic norms governing international relations.

Over the past year, with the implementation of the National Security Law and the adoption of a new electoral system, Hong Kong has witnessed an end of chaos and violence, the return of stability and growing prosperity.

A recent report by the International Monetary Fund reaffirmed Hong Kong's status as an international financial center. The latest survey by local think-tank Bauhinia Institute found that 82.6 percent of residents believe the city has been more peaceful since the National Security Law took effect.

Washington, on the other hand, turned a blind eye to the reality in Hong Kong and continues to pursue an unscrupulous and paranoid foreign policy. The outrageous, crazy and vile U.S. acts over Hong Kong are simply despicable.

The real purpose of such U.S. moves is to suppress China. For a long time, some U.S. and Western politicians have been keen on stoking tensions in Hong Kong, smearing the "one country, two systems" policy and flagrantly meddling in China's internal affairs.

Their sinister intentions to destabilize Hong Kong and contain China by any means possible are not new.

Their actions are rooted in the American anxiety that China's development will one day threaten U.S. hegemony, which has prompted some U.S. politicians to try everything possible to obstruct China's development. In their paranoid mind, China is a strategic competitor that must be suppressed and a chaotic Hong Kong serves their interests and is in line with their China containment plan.

However, those politicians failed to recognize that their attempts to stoke chaos in Hong Kong with coercive sanctions will only backfire.

The United States has deep and direct interests in the city. Official data released last year showed that there are around 85,000 U.S. citizens and more than 1,300 U.S. enterprises in Hong Kong, including almost all of America's major financial firms. Besides, Hong Kong has been the source of America's large bilateral trade surplus for years.

Those U.S. politicians, who have long boasted about their role as "human rights preachers" and jumped around to meddle in other countries' domestic affairs under the pretext of "democracy," have nevertheless turned a blind eye to the human rights tragedies in their homeland.

Since the collapse of a condominium in Florida two weeks ago, the federal and local governments have displayed unmistakable indifference to the lives of their fellow Americans with their bureaucratic inefficiency and buck-passing. Now 64 people were killed, and the remaining 76 buried in the debris are feared dead as well.

While some U.S. politicians were enjoying their Independence Day holiday at home, at least 233 people were killed and 618 people injured by gun violence in more than 500 shootings across the United States in the same period.

How on earth dare a country with such a bad record label itself as a human rights lecturer and teach others how to behave?

Hong Kong's stability will never be shaken, and the firm resolve of the Chinese government to safeguard national sovereignty and uphold the city's interests and prosperity in the long run should never be underestimated.

It is time for those U.S. politicians to wake up to that, and stop their insolence and paranoia as soon as possible. Otherwise, they will have to pay a heavy price because the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, including those in Hong Kong, are no pushovers.