HK faces rising risk of home-grown terrorism

In recent months, a number of homemade explosive devices and bomb-making materials have been found in Hong Kong, including in a downtown school and on train tracks near the boundary with the Chinese mainland. And after the latest incident, John Lee Ka-chiu, Hong Kong's security secretary, warned of the rising risk of "home-grown terrorism" on Wednesday.

His warning came after the explosive ordinances disposal team dealt with an explosive device found in a parcel at the Hong Kong police headquarters on Monday that was addressed to the chief of the police.

The timing of the mailing would suggest that the bomb was in response to the arrest of 15 individuals charged with organizing and taking part in unlawful assemblies and publicizing unauthorized public meetings.

Among those arrested was media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of the tabloid Apple Daily, who has been a high-profile supporter of the illegal protests and rioting that plunged the special administrative region into crisis in the latter half of last year.

Since June, these so-called "pan-democrats" and their acolytes in Hong Kong have staged numerous protests that have disrupted public order, and they have even sought to exploit the city's fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic in recent months to put pressure on the government, and tried to directly obstruct the functioning of the political system in the SAR.

The rise of home-grown terrorism is further evidence that support from such prominent figures is emboldening some radical anti-Beijing elements to go to even more extreme lengths.

The governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, which have constantly tried to interfere in Hong Kong's affairs, have been quick to try and make political capital out of the arrests by trying to misrepresent them as politicized law enforcement.

That they are willing to endorse the suspects' lawbreaking is not surprising given the interests they have vested in trying to "color" the violent disturbances that have roiled Hong Kong as a fight for "democracy".

They are right in saying that peaceful protest is allowed by the Basic Law, but the charges against the 15 are related to unlawful assemblies and their advocating of unauthorized public meetings.

What the US and UK governments are deliberately and duplicitously ignoring is that Hong Kong is under the rule of law and that lawbreakers must be held accountable no matter who they are.

If the US and the UK were as intent as they profess to be on upholding the law, they would support the judicial organs in Hong Kong administering justice impartially and refrain from interfering in Hong Kong's judicial affairs. That they have not done so is because they have no desire to see an end to the unrest despite their claims to be defenders of the law.