British politicians and officials have labored under a delusion

By turning themselves into handy instruments for the China-bashing business of Washington’s alt-right politicians, British politicians must have disappointed their own citizens as much as they have irritated the Chinese people.

It takes little effort for people to understand why the alt-right American politicians have been relentlessly rallying support for their global campaign to contain China’s rise over recent years. China has been wrongly viewed as a major “strategic rival” by those Washington politicians who are fixated on “America First” and mired in their misguided and unwarranted assumption that China would challenge the US’ global position.

But it must be difficult for the British public, as well as citizens of other member states of the Five Eyes alliance for that matter, to see the logic behind their government’s willingness and readiness to serve America’s geopolitical interests at the expense of their own national interests — in terms of damaging their own international reputation by breaching the non-interventionism principle and creating strain on bilateral relations. After all, theirs are supposed to be independent countries and to prioritize their own national interests.

Growing cold war mentality, underpinned by ideological bigotry, is the only possible explanation to why the Five Eyes have been increasingly obsessed with poking their nose into Hong Kong’s affairs, which are exclusively China’s internal affairs.

In their latest China-bashing move, the Britain’s Foreign Office accused Beijing of “substantive breaches” of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in its so-called half-year report on Hong Kong, citing the National Security Law implemented in Hong Kong and the NPCSC clarifying the eligibility of Hong Kong lawmakers. But it is disingenuous and self-deceiving for Britain to wield the Joint Declaration for this purpose. It is a clumsy sleight of hand to claim the “moral high ground” for its brazen interference in China’s internal affairs.

The Joint Declaration is an agreement for Britain to return Hong Kong to China and for the latter to resume the exercise of sovereignty over the city. The handover of Hong Kong is the rightful end to a severe injustice the UK placed on China. China’s moves to safeguard national security by introducing a national security law in Hong Kong and protect its interests in the special administrative region by requiring the latter’s public officeholders to pledge allegiance to the SAR is the embodiment of China exercising sovereignty over Hong Kong.

The British politicians and officials must be laboring under a delusion when they claim China is in some way accountable to them in managing Hong Kong by virtue of the injustice their ancestors have done on China.