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Opinion | What the UK’s latest report on Hong Kong gets so wrong
- In enacting Hong Kong’s national security law, China acted legitimately to protect its sovereignty in accordance with the Sino-British Joint Declaration
- To insist on political rhetoric as the basic premise of the report is most regrettable in the eyes of people in Hong Kong
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To the uninitiated, the UK’s most recent report on Hong Kong might give the impression that the city is repressive, dull and sectarian – nothing could be further from the truth. Most Hongkongers have learnt to ignore the six-monthly report, which is seen as too biased and unreal.
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But there are still many people worldwide who might take the report seriously, so some issues of principle need to be put right publicly.
First, one needs to truly understand what the Sino-British Joint Declaration is all about. In the report, David Cameron, the British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, boldly described Beijing’s enactment of Hong Kong’s national security law as a “breach of that treaty”.
It is hard to imagine that Cameron has not read the declaration, but his statement rather suggests he has not. Article 1 of the declaration unambiguously states that China was to “resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong”. What does that mean? Clearly, it means that it is within China’s legitimate interest to protect that sovereignty and its territorial integrity.
When China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are being challenged by, say, a call for independence for Hong Kong or for a return to its colonial status, such conduct is plainly incompatible with the aims and purposes of the declaration, to say the least.
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Not only did Cameron fail to address this most salient point in the report but the UK government also singularly failed to uphold the declaration in the face of extreme violence in 2019 in Hong Kong.
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