Facts speak louder than smears: China Daily editorial

Since the promulgation of the national security law for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, hardly a day has passed without members of the city's opposition camp staging one political farce after another in their attempts to stigmatize the law.

Some members of the opposition camp have staged illegal protests in total disregard of social distancing rules. Their unlawful gatherings have significantly increased the risk of the novel coronavirus further spreading in Hong Kong amid the current upswing in infections.

They also staged their so-called primaries to engineer fake popularity for the candidates they favor for the Legislative Council election of the SAR. Some have even repeatedly spread rumors that they are being "followed" or "watched" to grab public attention and throw mud at the national security law.

Yet they cannot hoodwink the majority of Hong Kong people, who have long realized that the real intention of the opposition camp is to create turmoil in the global financial hub so as to sabotage the "one country, two systems" principle, which has been the cornerstone of the city's stability and prosperity since the resumption of sovereignty 23 years ago.

In fact, the national security law in Hong Kong only targets a very small number of people who have committed or intend to commit acts of secession, subversion, infiltration and/or sabotage against the country. These are crimes that no country tolerates.

Those residents who are law-abiding have nothing to fear from the law and will not exhibit such paranoia. Those members of the opposition camp claiming to have been marked out by the law are merely putting on public display their guilty conscience.

That some members of Hong Kong's opposition camp have tried to disown their previous remarks after the law was put into effect on June 30 shows the law is acting as an effective deterrent.

With the introduction of the national security law in Hong Kong, the space for political extremism has been further squeezed. The "burn together" gang has no future at all as they will only be further marginalized and eventually become irrelevant in Hong Kong society.

If Hong Kong's political zealots continue to indulge in the wishful thinking of misleading the public and creating confrontation through telling lies and orchestrating political farces, it will be tantamount to a betrayal of the city's millions of law-abiding residents.

As such, it is hoped the opposition camp will make the right choice between allowing themselves to be hijacked by the political zealots or working together with the SAR government for the common good of Hong Kong society.