Hong Kong and British Guarantees

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BobKowalski

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China is cracking down on HK using Covid 19 as a pretext. Given Hong Kong has approx 250,000 British Nationals living in it, and 30,000 UK born citizens, and Beijing is about to extraterritorially impose its censor and law on Hong Kong, breaking an international treaty we supposedly guarantee, are we about to speak up or do anything? Will we provide safe harbour for nationals who want to leave?

The national security bill isn’t even here yet and today Hong Kong already resembles a police state
 
China need only look at the UK and see the lazy lightweight clown at the helm and crack on and do what they please - I doubt Johnson could organise a strongly worded letter to the Chinese ambassador at the moment.
 
Why would we? We promised many ethnic groups in Burma we would protect them and some free states and that we would not tollerate any persecution in the futre, but then just fucked off and left them to be opressed and murdered by the military juntas that have come since.

There is a long history of washing our hands of our promises to ex colonies if it isn't in our interest.

Also let's be honest international law is flouted all the time by the most powerful nations with people turning a blind eye, why would this be different?

I like Hong Kong, and enjoyed when I have visited, but I cannot see our weak government getting involved unless it is in our economic interests
 
urban genie said:
Why would we? We promised many ethnic groups in Burma we would protect them and some free states and that we would not tollerate any persecution in the futre, but then just fucked off and left them to be opressed and murdered by the military juntas that have come since.

There is a long history of washing our hands of our promises to ex colonies if it isn't in our interest.

Also let's be honest international law is flouted all the time by the most powerful nations with people turning a blind eye, why would this be different?

I like Hong Kong, and enjoyed when I have visited, but I cannot see our weak government getting involved unless it is in our economic interests
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Agreed. In this case though China is breaching the Sino-British Joint Declaration so I presumed the British Govt might like to, oh I don’t know, mention it in passing or at least send a snarky tweet perhaps? We seem happy to dash off letters to the EU pointing out the error of their ways so a peep of protest from Raab would seem to be in order given the number of British nationals living there.
 
BobKowalski said:
Agreed. In this case though China is breaching the Sino-British Joint Declaration so I presumed the British Govt might like to, oh I don’t know, mention it in passing or at least send a snarky tweet perhaps? We seem happy to dash off letters to the EU pointing out the error of their ways so a peep of protest from Raab would seem to be in order given the number of British nationals living there.
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Joanna Lumley has a better track record of defending people Britain owes a debt of gratitude to. I don't think Ab Fab aired in Bejing darling.....
 
Apparently we did issue a statement along with *checks notes* Australia and Canada. No disrespect to these two fine countries but think we need more heavy weight support than that.

Labour have written to Raab on HK and status of British nationals etc. I agree though that the chances of us doing anything that matters are zero. I’m not even sure we can do anything that matters.

 
Don't have all the details but seems a good opening initiative. Source BBC

‘Breaking: @DominicRaab tells China that unless it suspends plans for new security laws in Hong Kong, the UK will give greater visa rights to 300,000+ British National (Overseas) passport holders. Current right to 6 mths in Britain without visa would be increased to 12 mths’
 
JamesMCFC said:
Realistically, what can we even do?

We're not the superpower anymore.

The only thing we could do is give them British citizenship. They are a highly educated state.
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Might help solve the problem that will be caused by the exodus of EU workers.
 
JamesMCFC said:
Realistically, what can we even do?

We're not the superpower anymore.
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China is hardly going to be shitting bricks are they? We have a PM who's word cannot be trusted, who's short stint dabbling in foreign policy was a disaster and when the watch this bungling fiasco that is going on at the moment they must be pissing themselves laughing and just preparing to do whatever they want.
 
bluethrunthru said:
China is hardly going to be shitting bricks are they? We have a PM who's word cannot be trusted, who's short stint dabbling in foreign policy was a disaster and when the watch this bungling fiasco that is going on at the moment they must be pissing themselves laughing and just preparing to do whatever they want.
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Tbh even if we had batman as a pm the Chinese would hardly shit bricks. If it comes to fisticuffs even a basic knowledge of military strategy and supply lines mean there is nothing we can do. Better appealing to china's greed and the usefulness of Hk as a back door to the benefits of capitalism.
 
Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese said:
Tbh even if we had batman as a pm the Chinese would hardly shit bricks. If it comes to fisticuffs even a basic knowledge of military strategy and supply lines mean there is nothing we can do. Better appealing to china's greed and the usefulness of Hk as a back door to the benefits of capitalism.
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From that post you’d think that China needs a back door to capitalism. It might have escaped your notice but China is probably amongst the most capitalist countries in the world with or without HK, in spite of being ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.
 
west didsblue said:
From that post you’d think that China needs a back door to capitalism. It might have escaped your notice but China is probably amongst the most capitalist countries in the world with or without HK, in spite of being ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.
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Absolutely, like most of us I sit surrounded by cheap Chinese goods, but I'm sure Hk's position in financial markets and geographicaly has benefits. I'm not pretending I'm an expert btw. Possibly just that China sees Hk as part of its territory in geographical terms and realises there isn't much we can/will do to stop it?
 
I am surprised China would kill the HK goose that's laying such golden eggs. On the other hand they've never forgotten or forgiven the humiliation heaped on them by the West in the 1800s, so the 1997 promise to respect HK's freedom was always likely to get broken when China thought the time was right.
As for Britain objecting, back in the 1850s there was a guy named Don Pacifico, a Portuguese Jew living in Greece but born of British parents and therefore a British subject. His house got destroyed in a riot and British P.M. Lord Palmerston sent the Royal Navy to bombard Athens until the Greek gov't paid compensation. Them days are gone.
 
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