Hong Kong shows China’s terrifying ambitions

Beijing has broken its word over our former colony, so ministers must be wary of dealing with Xi’s regime

Hong Kong’s political crisis should be seen as a salutary lesson in the absolute determination of Beijing’s autocratic regime to get its own way, irrespective of the international condemnation its policies may attract.

Ever since Britain was obliged to return its prized colonial possession to China in 1997, successive regimes in Beijing have been quietly encroaching on the quasiautonomous political system that was bequeathed to the people of Hong Kong when the Union Flag was lowered for the last time.

Chris Patten, who enjoyed a fractious relationship with his Chinese counterparts during his ill-tempered tenure as governor in the 1990s, voiced serious concerns that, once Britain’s imperial sojourn had ended, Hong Kong would be vulnerable to Beijing’s irredentist designs.

Back then, as now, there was little

appetite in Britain for any confrontation with China that, given the latter’s overwhelming military superiority, it had little prospect of winning. So the farewell ceremonies were conducted in the hope that China would honour its commitment to respect the territory’s distinct status, rather than seek to subject it to Beijing’s diktat.

To judge by the massive demonstrations in Hong Kong in recent days, Beijing is palpably pursuing the latter option which, given the centralising nature of President Xi Jinping’s regime, can hardly have come as a surprise to residents.

Large demonstrations have become a regular feature of the territory during the past two decades as Hong Kongers like to flaunt their right to protest, a privilege denied to their Chinese compatriots. There have even been occasions when the protests have achieved their objective, such as in 2003 when an estimated 500,000 people took to the streets to oppose a controversial national security bill, that resulted in the pro-beijing authorities shelving the measure.

That was before Mr Xi emerged as the dominant force in China’s Communist Party, accumulating power at home and seeking global dominance abroad.

Consequently, even though the latest protests – over plans by Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam to implement a controversial law allowing extradition to mainland China – have resulted in an estimated one million locals (around one fifth of the population) taking to the streets, they have little chance of making an impact on Beijing.

For Hong Kong, this is likely to result in yet another round of arbitrary arrests, with leading political activists mysteriously disappearing, as happened in the infamous case of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books in 2015, where five employees went missing, only to be discovered being held in detention in mainland China.

China’s clumsy power grab in Hong Kong also needs to be viewed in the context of Beijing’s wider activities, where its expansionist policies are in danger of putting it on a collision course with other world powers.

China’s militarisation of the South China Sea, where it has established a network of bases, including airfields and missile launchers, on artificially created islands, has already put it at odds with the US, which has challenged their legality.

Similarly its much-vaunted “Belt and Road” initiative, which Beijing says is designed to boost global trade, has attracted controversy over claims that China has deliberately lured impoverished nations into taking out loans they can ill afford, thereby making them Chinese vassals in all but name.

Thirty years after China’s communist elite signalled its determination to cling to power by crushing anti-government protests in Tiananmen Square, the regime’s relentless pursuit of economic dominance has even prompted senior officials in the Trump administration to regard Beijing as posing an existential threat to world peace.

Certainly, so far as Britain is concerned, China’s high-handed conduct, whether in terms of eroding Hong Kong’s distinctive political status or extending its economic hegemony over large swathes of Asia and Africa, should persuade ministers to be cautious when considering the long-term implications of Chinese investment, from allowing Huawei access to the new 5G network to building nuclear power stations.

There is a powerful constituency among senior Tories, led by Chancellor Philip Hammond, who argue that the best way of persuading China to be more cooperative in its international undertakings is by developing close trade ties. So long as China has valuable investments in Britain, their argument goes, Beijing will be inclined to maintain a constructive relationship with the UK.

The problem with this approach is that China cannot be trusted to observe the norms of international conduct. The more logical conclusion for ministers to draw, therefore, is that they ignore Beijing’s increasingly insidious behaviour at their peril.

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