Hong Kong not a toy the West can play with: China Daily editorial

That they have chosen to sing God Save the Queen before the United Kingdom's consulate-general in Hong Kong and wave the Stars and Stripes in front of the United States' consulate-general over the weekend to continue seeking outside help to perpetuate their frenzy shows the demonstrators are nearing their wit's end.

By prolonging the violent demonstrations against a bill to amend the extradition law, which has already been withdrawn, and questioning China's sovereignty over the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, they have not only jeopardized the SAR's economy but also tarnished the image of Hong Kong as a global financial and shipping hub, and in the process also harmed themselves.

Isolated, they have no choice but to turn to their former colonial masters and the self-proclaimed defender of freedom in search of something more than "moral support". And it seems the US — along with its "all-weather friend" across the Atlantic which cannot even manage to clear the Brexit mess of its own making — is hell-bent on doing something stupid, as usual, given the way it has rolled out the red carpet for secessionist Joshua Wong in New York and Washington.

Add to that the newfound friendship between habitual rabble-rouser Marco Rubio and Wong, and you have a recipe for disaster, because it is the Republican senator who re-introduced in the US Congress the "Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act", which, if passed, would require an annual justification of the special treatment, including trade and business privileges, that for decades Washington has accorded to Hong Kong.

But neither any of the US politicians nor Wong has Hong Kong's interests in mind. Since the Republican senator from Florida is a diehard China basher, he has readily seized the opportunity to join hands with Wong — who outrageously appealed to the White House to include a human rights clause in the trade talks with Beijing — to fulfill his agenda of targeting China to win some cheap brownie points.

The fact, however, is neither the US nor the UK has any right to interfere in China's internal affairs, and more importantly, China will never allow them to do so.

If the US lawmakers refuse to see the bigger picture and pass the bill, they would take a perilous step in the wrong direction, for which the US would have to pay a heavy price.