Hong kong is now seriously threatened. We need action, not words, from jeremy hunt | thearticle

Events in Hong Kong are spiralling out of control. After yesterday’s occupation of the legislature by angry demonstrators, Beijing now has the pretext it needs for a Tiananmen-style

crackdown. Britain has a unique responsibility to prevent such a tragic outcome. Monday was the anniversary of the 1997 handover of the former British colony to China, but memories of

freedom are still strong enough for the protestors, threatened with an extradition law they see as the prelude to a police state and ignored by the international community, to resort to

desperate measures. The fact that some protestors hoisted the Union Jack in the debating chamber will have convinced President Xi Jinping of their disloyal, even treasonable intentions.

State news outlets are issuing ever more ominous statements. The storming of the parliament building, seen by young dissidents as a symbol of Chinese rule rather than democracy, has been

described by the state news agency as “totally intolerable”. A Communist Party organ, the Global Times, called for “zero tolerance” as “the only remedy”. It warned against “opening a

Pandora’s Box”, implying that unrest could spread to the mainland unless the authorities took a tough line. Such language has only one meaning in China. Unless Carrie Lam, the Chief

Executive, has those responsible arrested and punished with long prison sentences, a far more draconian solution threatens the “special administrative region”. China is supposed to abide by

the Joint Declaration it signed with Britain in 1984, which promises to maintain the principle of “one country, two systems” until 2047. But the preservation of its control over Hong Kong

matters more to Beijing than anything else — even its global reputation. The principle enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration is, in the eyes of Xi and the system he represents,

subordinate to that of Chinese sovereignty. Hence the repeated insistence of his spokesmen that the protests in Hong Kong are an internal matter and that Britain should “know its place”.

Monday’s statement described the protests as “a blatant challenge to the bottom line of the “One Country Two Systems formula”. This belligerent language reveals an underlying nervousness.

The People’s Republic still needs Hong Kong as a source of economic dynamism. China cannot afford to kill the goose that lays such golden eggs. Rather than repeat the kind of bloodbath that

took place thirty years ago on the streets of Beijing, Xi would rather put in place the legal machinery to extradite those who are identified as “extreme radicals”, such as the occupiers of

the legislature. They would be dealt with on the mainland, away from international scrutiny. On past performance, their fate does not bear thinking about. The stakes are so high that the

protestors have risked their lives to force Hong Kong onto the world’s agenda — and especially Britain’s. As news of the occupation broke on Monday, Jeremy Hunt made a personal declaration

of support on television: “When I look at…those terrible scenes in Hong Kong, my heart goes out to people who do have to fight for their freedoms and who are worried they could lose their

very, very precious way of life.” He appealed to Xi to “let it be”. But such appeals to sentiment will fall on deaf ears in Beijing. What is needed is for the Foreign Secretary to mobilise

the support of our allies who are also China’s most important trading partners. Xi needs to know that if he abandons the “one country two systems” principle in order to crush protests in

Hong Kong, China will face severe sanctions and a return to the isolation of the Mao era. Such a message, if backed by the United States and the Anglosphere as well as Germany and the rest

of the EU, might just be enough to deter the Chinese from absorbing Hong Kong into their totalitarian system. For Hunt to drum up support for such a response would require him to interrupt

his leadership campaign. He ought to put his country before his party, and his principles before his personal ambition. Does Jeremy Hunt have the courage to do that? If he does, he will go

down in history as a great diplomat and statesman, whether or not he becomes Prime Minister.