Opinion‘One country, two systems’ is under attack, and Hong Kong must uphold the rule of law more than ever

Mahatma Gandhi always opposed violence, for good reason. He said that “when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent”.

Over the past month, political violence has been repeatedly deployed by activists. Two sieges of the Legislative Council building resulted in injury, damage and destruction. On June 12, a police line was attacked by people brandishing sharpened metal poles, bricks and improvised weapons.

And, on July 1, the legislature was invaded, with the perpetrators smashing glass, destroying equipment and trashing work areas. Although those responsible will now be liable to prosecution for various offences, perhaps their real crime lies in the harm they have done to the image of the peaceful protesters, as well as to the hopes for future development in Hong Kong.

However, the invasion did at least shed light on their true motivations. Although, in the past, the government has been criticised for tightening its grip on the independence movement that directly threatens the “one country, two systems” paradigm, the behaviour of the activists highlighted just how right it was to do so.

Besides defacing Hong Kong’s official bauhinia emblem, they scrawled “Hong Kong is not China” on the walls, and raised the old British colonial flag. They even ripped apart copies of the Basic Law, the very document which gives life to “one country, two systems” and guarantees our capitalist system and way of life.