London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Anti-democracy US is ‘plagued’ with social problems, Hong Kong official says

Anti-democracy US is ‘plagued’ with social problems, Hong Kong official says

US-style democracy is undermined by high levels of violent crime, drug abuse and racism, John Lee says.

A top Hong Kong official has fired a fresh salvo at the United States, describing the country as “plagued” with social problems that expose its leadership to be “anti-democracy”.

Echoing Beijing outrage against Western governments, Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu on Thursday said there was no “one-size-fits-all” standard for democracy and that every jurisdiction would follow its own path based on the actual circumstances.

Mainland Chinese officials began advancing that position weeks ago in the lead up to Washington’s “Summit for Democracy” earlier this month, accusing the US of trying to impose its version of democracy on the rest of the world.

The argument was aired again immediately before and after the Monday release of Beijing’s latest white paper for Hong Kong in defence of its strategy for developing democracy locally “in line with its realities”.

The paper – published the day after Hong Kong’s first Legislative Council poll since Beijing drastically overhauled its electoral system to ensure only “patriots” governed – also renewed its pledge to pursue the ultimate goal of electing the city’s leader and legislature by universal suffrage.

Speaking at a forum organised by Beijing’s liaison office in the city, Lee said that democracy should not just be an “adornment”, repeating a phrase used by mainland officials, before he turned his ire on the US.

“America claims it has democracy. Yet it is plagued by all kinds of problems, including security, violent crimes, drug abuse, racism, social polarisation and a huge wealth disparity,” said Lee, who was subject to US financial sanctions before becoming chief secretary.

“Despite all sorts of human rights and racism problems at home, the US is still taking pride in imposing its system on others. This bears the hallmark of hegemony, a sense of superiority, speaking in a single channel and anti-democracy.”

John Lee, Hong Kong’s No 2 official.


Chen Dong, deputy director of the liaison office, hit out at the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance led by the US for weighing in on the city’s Legco election, at which the pro-establishment bloc swept to victory in all seats bar one amid record low turnout of 30.2 per cent.

The alliance – also comprising Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – expressed “grave concern” at what it called the erosion of democratic elements in the city.

Chen also blasted Washington’s two-day democracy summit, which involved more than 100 countries, as well as the United Kingdom’s latest six-monthly report covering Hong Kong.

“They [the Five Eyes] issued a statement to vilify the national security law and electoral system,” Chen said.

Liu Guangyuan, commissioner of Beijing’s foreign affairs office in Hong Kong, accused the US of being a “black hand” – using a Chinese term for mastermind – and exploiting the city as a pawn to hinder national growth.

He blamed the US for disregarding Beijing sovereignty over Hong Kong, funding political agents to incite chaos, and interfering with the city’s judicial independence, as well as forcefully imposing America-style democracy.

A day earlier, Liu had spoken in a similarly ballistic manner at a briefing session for consul generals, foreign business chambers and selected media.

Beijing dedicated much of its latest white paper, titled “Hong Kong Democratic Progress Under the Framework of One Country, Two Systems”, to detailing the lack of democracy in Hong Kong when it was under British rule.

That theme was consistently laid out by speakers at the forum, who included heavyweight pro-Beijing figures such as Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai and newly elected lawmakers such as Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee.

Ip, a government official under British rule, said the then colonial government only sped up progress towards democracy in the years before Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997.

Chen on Thursday accused the city’s British rulers of discriminatory policies and “sowing troubles for stability for Hong Kong’s future”. Liu said the white paper set out why Beijing was the “pioneer” of the city’s democracy.

Beijing and Hong Kong authorities over the past few days have already issued a slew of statements in response to foreign government criticism of the “patriots-only” shake-up of the local electoral system.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong accused the US and Britain of depicting themselves as “teachers” in the classroom of democracy and smearing the Legco election.

US-based scholar Hung Ho-fung, from Johns Hopkins University, said it was apparent that Beijing’s discourse had shifted from defensive to offensive by arguing that China’s political system was a better form of democracy than the West’s.

“In the past they did talk about China’s standard of human rights (such as the right of development, the right of being well-fed). Now they extend it to China’s standard of democracy,” he said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
×