If anybody understands the European Union, it is Nigel Farage. A veteran Eurosceptic, he served as a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2020. Having witnessed the bloc’s operations at firsthand, he was appalled and realized the United Kingdom had to get out.

In 2016, Farage (now the leader of Reform UK) said the EU was a “hopelessly outdated, stagnant, failed project”. He added that it was “ill-equipped to deal with the realities of the globalized world we now find ourselves in”. Since then, the EU has repeatedly shown how right he was, with the latest example coming from its foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.

On Nov 28, through his spokesman, Borrell launched an extraordinary attack on Hong Kong in a speech at the European Parliament. Not only was fact-checking disregarded, but propaganda was prioritized. If nothing else, it showed the EU has become even more debased since Britain quit the bloc four years ago.

Since 2020, Borrell claimed, “We have witnessed a dramatic decline of the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.” If anybody doubted that the great deceivers of the world begin by deceiving themselves, here was proof positive. All that has declined is the ability of those who hate China to create mayhem on Hong Kong’s streets, promote disaffection, advance US policies, and endanger the “one country, two systems” governing policy.

Although Borrell ignored it, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights applies in Hong Kong, and guarantees its people’s basic rights and freedoms. However, rights are not absolute, and reasonable restrictions, as recognized globally, are legitimate. Overall, people are free and can, for example, speak their minds, criticize the authorities, read what they want, access the internet, practice their religion, associate with others and travel where they want. These are the indicia of a free society, and no amount of bluffing by Borrell can change things.

To be charitable, mischief-makers could have caused Borrell’s misrepresentations and the EU’s office in Hong Kong may have fed him duff data. If its Hong Kong representative, Harvey Rouse, was in any way responsible for the gibberish he spouted, Borrell will hopefully demand his head on a platter. Being exposed as a myth maker cannot be pleasant, but it got worse.

Having observed that 45 of the “Hong Kong 47” case had been sentenced to imprisonment for between 4 and 10 years, Borrell trotted out the myth that “all they had done was organize and participate in a primary election”, and left it at that. They had done far more than this, having conspired to subvert State power, as Rouse should have told him.

Instead of regurgitating anti-China propaganda, Borrell owed it to his position to level with his audience. He should have explained that the 45 defendants had joined a plot to bring bloodshed to the streets, provoke a confrontation with Beijing, and wreck the “one country two systems” policy. At its heart lay the notorious laam chau doctrine, which envisaged mutual destruction. Inexplicably, Borrell made no mention of it.

As if this was not bad enough, he then switched to Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, the former media magnate currently on trial for national security offenses. In words that demonstrated he was wholly unaware of the evidence the prosecutors had presented to the court, Borrell claimed that Lai was “being prosecuted for his support for freedom of expression and democracy in Hong Kong”. Since these are not crimes in Hong Kong, as Rouse should have told him, there is no way that Lai could be prosecuted for them. 

If Borrell felt he needed to mention Lai’s case, he owed it to his own credibility to identify what the case was actually about. Lai is accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to harm China and of conspiring to issue seditious publications. These are grave charges, and Borrell did nobody any favors by misleading parliamentarians who have already received more than their fair share of misinformation. 

The national security laws have restored peace and stability in Hong Kong, and the “one country, two systems” policy has gone from strength to strength

In 2020, Hong Kong Watch, the anti-China hate machine founded by the serial fantasist, Benedict Rogers, created the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). Rogers’ henchman, Luke de Pulford (who has been associated with the subversive “Stand with Hong Kong” since 2019 and has featured heavily in evidence in the Lai trial), was put in charge. He now styles himself its “executive director”, and IPAC’s mission is to malign China at every opportunity and to bring together like-minded Sinophobes from the world’s legislatures.

Like a cancer, IPAC has spread into the EU. When its members are not trying to maintain US hegemony, they seek to poison the minds of EU officials like Borrell about the situation in different parts of China, including Hong Kong. Indeed, IPAC will be delighted that Borrell is now eating out of its hand, and willing to do its dirty work.

He ended his tirade with a call to China to “preserve the ‘one country, two systems’ principle”, underscoring his ignorance.

The national security laws have restored peace and stability in Hong Kong, and the “one country, two systems” policy has gone from strength to strength. Moreover, President Xi Jinping announced in 2022 that the policy would continue after 2047 (the expiry date envisaged by the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984). It was Rouse’s duty to keep Borrell fully briefed of these crucial developments, and if he did so Borrell has disregarded him, for what can only have been sinister reasons.

With the problems posed by the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House, Borrell should be looking at the bigger picture. Instead of allowing himself to be manipulated by IPAC and its ilk, he needs to consider how to improve the EU’s relations with China, which he will not achieve by slandering Hong Kong. He will leave office shortly, and it must be hoped his successor has a better grasp of reality and more vision.

The author is a senior counsel and law professor, and was previously the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong SAR.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.