It's crucial to understand the Basic Law

At a symposium in Beijing on Saturday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of implementing the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR, Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, called for more efforts to help Hong Kong people better understand the city's political system. He has a sound reason.

For any symphony to be successfully performed, all members of the orchestra must have a good grasp of its core theme. The same is true with the implementation of "One Country, Two Systems".

The core theme, or essential objective, of this innovative political design has been made known to the world since the very beginning of its conception in the early 1980s. And that is to maintain the long-term stability and prosperity of Hong Kong, as well as to uphold the nation's sovereignty, security and development interests.

To this end, the central authorities put in place in the Hong Kong SAR when it was established 20 years ago - through the implementation of the Basic Law - a political system that allows the central government to exercise comprehensive sovereignty over the SAR.

In exercising its sovereignty over Hong Kong, the central government entrusts the Chief Executive who is head of both the Hong Kong government and the SAR, as well as the core of the SAR's executive-led political system, with most of the city's governing powers.

It's willful blindness not to see these political arrangements, institutionalized by the Basic Law. Yet, some quarters of Hong Kong society, motivated by their own political agendas, have attempted in recent years to sabotage these political arrangements - the very foundation of Hong Kong's stability and prosperity, as well as the effective mechanism to uphold national interests.

Over the past several years, Hong Kong has witnessed repeated attempts to compromise the central government's sovereignty over the SAR, weaken the CE's governing power and usurp the executive authority's power to introduce and implement policies. The underlying objective is to turn Hong Kong into an independent or semi-independent political entity, as evidenced by some quarters openly advocating "self-determination" and "Hong Kong independence".

Such attempts, if left unabated, would derail the smooth implementation of "One Country, Two Systems", and could lead Hong Kong into disasters to the detriment of both the SAR and the nation as a whole. The top legislator's renewed call for correct understanding of Hong Kong's political system is, therefore, a timely reminder for Hong Kong people to look squarely at the issue of the city's political system and Basic Law being deliberately misinterpreted by politically motivated forces at the expense of Hong Kong's overall interests.

It's time for Hong Kong people to stop being bystanders. There is at least one thing they can do now - support the SAR government in fulfilling its constitutional obligation to national security under the Basic Law.

(HK Edition 05/29/2017 page4)