HONG KONG, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- When Hong Kong was shrouded in black terror, some Western politicians deliberately turned a blind eye to the violence of the rioters, and pointed fingers at the police and the government in an act that showed their hypocrisy and double-standards.
Earlier this week, British Minister for Asia and the Pacific Heather Wheeler threatened that the government would introduce human rights legislation allowing it to impose sanctions against people who commit serious human rights violations or abuses. The remarks were believed to target principal officials from the government of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and senior Hong Kong police officers.
It is ridiculous that she used the term "human rights" here without addressing the real human rights crisis in Hong Kong.
When searching for a definition of human rights, such notions as the right to life, freedom of opinion and the right to work and education would be paramount. But such rights are becoming non-existent in Hong Kong because of the rioter's atrocities.
When 70-year-old cleaner Lo was killed while standing facing some brick-flinging rioters, who could protect the right to life of this innocent senior worker who did not even appear to be talking with the black-clad thugs?
When Yiu, a taxi driver, was beaten up for proclaiming to be a Chinese national until his face was a bloody mess with his eyes badly bruised and swollen, did any foreign politicians like Ms. Wheeler call for safeguarding his freedom of opinion?
When rioters vandalized shops, blocked roads, set fire to mass transit railway (MTR) stations and torched the trains, turned universities into strongholds and forced classes to be suspended, why did not Ms. Wheeler cry for the right to work and education of the general public?
Some U.S. politicians, meanwhile, are even more absurd.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, while the senate is speeding up the process of passing that act.
U.S. senator Marco Rubio, who proposed the bill, claimed that the move was to send a message of support to "Hongkongers in their struggle."
Does it mean that the United States, if the country could be represented by him at all, stands with those who, covering their faces with masks, walked away after all the vandalizing, torching and dishing out heinous physical attacks and beatings on other human lives without being punished?
Do they stand with rioters who poured suspected flammable liquid on a 57-year-old man who held a different political view and set fire to him? Do they stand with them when their victim was in a critical condition at hospital with second-degree burns on 50 percent of his body?
Do they stand with rioters who have brought Hong Kong's economy into the abyss? Unemployment rate of the consumption- and tourism-related segment in Hong Kong increased further to 4.9 percent during July-September period. It means that many people have lost their jobs and it would be hard for their families to make ends meet in a place where the living cost is not low.
But some U.S. politicians did nothing to punish, or even condemn the rioters. On the contrary, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, called the demonstrations "a beautiful sight to behold."
Do they really want such a "beautiful sight" to behold in their own country?
Their ill-intended support of the rioters could only be seen as encouragement, so that violence in Hong Kong would continue and escalate, and more innocent people would fall victim to it.
On Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping made it clear that the most pressing task for Hong Kong at present is to bring the violence and chaos to an end and restore order. It is also the common wish of millions of civilians in Hong Kong.
If Western politicians really want Hong Kong to continue to move forward and flourish again in the future, they should immediately stop supporting rioters, both verbally and materially, and help restore peace to this place, where many American, European and other foreign people also enjoyed living and working.
