Hong Kong risks losing everything including the rule of law if violence does not stop, a Beijing expert said on the sidelines of a UN Human Rights Council meeting.

Wang Zhenmin, former director of the legal affairs department of the central government's liaison office in the Hong Kong SAR, said: "If the violence destroys the rule of law, Hong Kong will lose everything," and the situation now is "extremely critical" and "very worrying."

Wang, who currently heads the Center for Hong Kong and Macao Studies at Tsinghua University, is attending the 42nd regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The Beijing-based expert said the city has seen large-scale violence and crime, posing enormous challenges to the rule of law.

"This is a huge loss for all Hong Kong people and the country as a whole," Wang said.

The central government wants Hong Kong to be prosperous and stable, and also hopes that "One Country, Two Systems" could be implemented in a steady and sustained way, Wang stressed.

The principle fits not only Hong Kong's interests but also the national interests, he said.

But the expert also said, "The current problem is not that the Hong Kong people do not have freedom, and not that the Hong Kong government does not allow its people to exercise their rights, but rather that human rights and freedom have been very seriously distorted and abused."

The radical protesters simply do not allow others to express different opinions, and a person may be badly beaten merely because he or she has uttered patriotic or pro-police words, he said.

Speaking about the accusation of excessive use of force by the police, he said such an accusation totally "confounds black with white."

For months, masked radical protesters have launched attacks, forcing the police to take countermeasures to protect innocent people and public property, he added.

He said that the police have been exercising restraint and acted professionally, using minimum force and doing their utmost to answer the call of duty, and maintain basic order and the rule of law.

(With input from Xinhua)

(Cover: Wang Zhenmin during an event in Beijing, October 2014. /VCG Photo)