The people of Hong Kong will be assets to UK

‘Enlightened selfinterest” is what you call it when a form of action is both ethically right and good for you at the same time. What could be easier than something that is both good for the conscience and good for the wallet?

The case now of the democracy activists in Hong Kong seems to me a very clear case in point. When Hong Kong was passed to the Chinese in 1997, ending over a century and a half of British colonial rule, an agreement was forged that the region’s autonomy and separate identity would be respected for at least 50 years, until 2047.

The trouble is that the word of the Chinese government is far from trustworthy. The National Security Law it intends to impose on the city has caused alarm among pro-democracy activists.

The Beijing regime calls the 1997 treaty a historical document which no longer has any practical significance. This is an attitude to legally binding promises which should ring alarm bells throughout the international community.

As a member of this country’s Ugandan Asian community I cannot help but feel particularly alarmed. So much about it reminds me of my family’s experiences when Idi Amin expelled them from the country of my birth almost half a century ago.

Besides, as Pastor Martin Niemoller wrote at the time of the Holocaust, we should all stand up against injustice – whether or not it is personal for us. For if we don’t, nobody will be there to speak up for us in turn.

In 1972, when Amin unleashed his murderous campaign, the government of Edward Heath was admirably firm about Britain’s duty to help.

Many were opposed. Enoch Powell had recently made his infamous Rivers of Blood speech. Feeling against immigration ran high. “This is our duty,” Heath said regardless, So much for the “enlightened” part of it. What about the self-interest?

Well, the Ugandan Asian community has proved an invaluable addition to British life: entrepreneurial, grateful, open-minded. They have been willing to learn English, to start businesses, to embrace British customs. Numerous examples can be found, from Priti Patel, our current Home Secretary, downwards. There is every reason to think the people of Hong Kong would prove the same. They too are often anglophone, anglophile and

We should help them and it is in our interests to do so. It is not difficult

entrepreneurial – and now, in the wake of Covid-19, we have rarely been more in need of such attitudes.

They believe in the value of independence and hard work. They would be anxious to fit in – just as my community was.

It might well be that other Commonwealth countries would prove a preferable destination.

We don’t know how many might actually want to come all this way. But there is every reason to think that those who did would prove an immensely valuable asset to our great country.

We should help them, and it is in our interest to do so. The Government is right. It is not a difficult decision.