Xi Jinping offered no
concessions on civil liberties during his visit to Hong Kong
Xi Jinping’s tough talk
in Hong Kong reflects growing self-confidence in China’s ability to shape world
events and browbeat or ignore less powerful countries such as Britain.
The Chinese president could
have thrown a bone to the pro-democracy movement. He could have offered a sop
on civil liberties and political rights to western opinion. Instead, he told Hong Kong who’s boss.
Xi the hard man laid down the
law according to Beijing. His
message: fall into line, or else.
His message to Britain was
blunt, too, bordering on disdainful. China would not brook
outside “interference” in the former colony. Forget about those guarantees of a
free, open society painstakingly negotiated before the 1997 handover.
“Any attempt to endanger
China’s sovereignty and challenge the power of the central government is
absolutely impermissible,” Xi said.
Under Xi’s bastardised version
of the Basic Law,
any criticism is henceforth forbidden, on pain of serious consequences. Boris
Johnson received a stinging lesson in the new balance of power earlier in
the week.
“As we look to the future,
Britain hopes that Hong Kong will make more progress toward a fully democratic
and accountable system of government,” the foreign secretary intoned with
uncharacteristic meekness.
Johnson’s statement was
shamefully deferential. He could, and should, have been more forceful about
Beijing’s responsibilities and its own egregious, sometimes illegal meddling.
But China took umbrage all the same. Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador in
London, set Johnson straight: Hong Kong issues must henceforth be “handled
properly” or overall
ties would suffer.
Worse was to follow. On
Friday, China’s foreign ministry formally
renounced the 1984 Sino-British joint declaration, the basis on which
Britain agreed to relinquish control of the colony. The two sides had agreed
the treaty would remain in force for 50 years.
“The Sino-British joint
declaration, as a historical document, no longer has any practical
significance, and it is not at all binding for the central government’s
management over Hong Kong,” the spokesman Lu Kang declared. The Foreign Office
swiftly rejected the demarche. But in his present bullish mood, Xi is not
listening.
China’s hardening stance is
deeply threatening to Hong Kong and bilateral relations. It suggests China’s
official word cannot be trusted, whether the issue is Hong Kong’s (and
Taiwan’s) continued freedoms, illegal regional military expansion, or investment
in Britain’s nuclear industry, retailers
and real estate.
China’s evident sense of
impunity is humiliating for Britain, too. It dramatises Britain’s diminished
standing in the world and an alarming shortage of reliable friends and allies.
Will Donald Trump help? Will an alienated European Union? Unlikely.
Theresa May’s government faces
a choice between upholding legal principle and democratic values, and its
chronic post-Brexit need for Chinese trade and business at any price.
No prizes, or yellow
umbrellas, for predicting which way
May and Johnson will jump.
