United States government spokesperson, too, has expressed support for the protesting students in Hong Kong. And at the G20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia, US President Barack Obama reiterated America's support for the students.

But students in Hong Kong and elsewhere should not forget how US police treat demonstrators and protesters. They just need to switch on their TV sets to see what has been going on in Ferguson, Missouri, and realize how the US government treats its own protesters and demonstrators. A government that crushes protesters in its own country with brutal force is being hypocritical when it talks about promoting democracy in other parts of the world.

The Hong Kong government and police have exercised exemplary restraint in dealing with the student demonstrators. To avoid escalation of tensions, they allowed the demonstrations and protests to continue. But they warned the protestors that their right to protest should not cause inconvenience to others or violate other people's rights. The Hong Kong government and police have shown the British and American administrations and police how to deal with demonstrations and protests.

This brings to mind the Nigerian author and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and others who were hanged by the Nigerian government in 1995. Human rights organizations in the West and Western governments egged him and his friends on to confront the Nigerian government. But when the Nigerian government arrested him and his friends, their Western supporters could not save them from death.

The government of a country or region has the legitimate authority to enforce the law. And nobody is above the law. The Hong Kong students have to know that their supporters in the West can only cheer them on from a safe distance to disrupt the country's progress but cannot save them from being punished for violating the law. The students should never become other people's paw just because some irresponsible and ill-intentioned spectators are out there to cheer them on.

The author is a professor of politics at Warren Wilson College, North Carolina, US, and guest professor at Hebei University, China.