The People’s Daily (March 14) published a page-four Zhong Sheng (钟声) commentary condemning “a small number of Western countries” for having recently issued “so-called statements” on the NPC Decision, revealing their “sinister intention” to “treat Hong Kong as a chess piece to contain China’s development.” It warned that “today’s China is no longer the very poor and weak old China that the Eight-Nation Alliance bullied over 100 years ago,” that “the Chinese people are not intimidated by or scared of evil forces and do not cause trouble but are not afraid of getting into trouble,” and that “no foreign country should not count on us trading away our core interests or swallowing the bitter fruit of harming our country’s national sovereignty, security, and development interests.” Asking why this “small number of Western countries” did not speak up in favour of democracy in Hong Kong while it was still a British colony, the commentary argued that Hong Kong had entered “the new historical era of ‘One Country, Two Systems” with its return to the motherland and that “oppose-China, stoke-chaos-in-Hong Kong forces” had recently threatened the political order. It criticised these countries for treating the Sino-British Joint Declaration as if it were still in effect and, in conclusion, asserted that “any attempt by external forces to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs is doomed not to prevail.”
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