Excellent article from Cymposium. We lived in Hong Kong for 23 years and were present during the disappearance of the booksellers that were selling works gossiping about Xi and his girlfriends. Today, it seems that a book about a local Hong Kong hero who did nothing more than amplify the views of the vast majority of Hong Kongers (I remember the massive swing against pro-Beijing parties in the local constituency elections of 2019 which "curiously" were not reported on the Mainland as well as the beautiful spontaneous singing of ordinary Hong Kongers in the luxury shopping malls supporting the pro-democracy protests and the home they loved in 2019/2020 before the sedition law was passed). Thanks for this article. I shall follow your articles closely in future.
Hi Sarah, it's Daniel the editor. Thanks for subscribing. Would love to have some more writing about HK / China on G&S as it isn’t my personal area of expertise. Are you a writer?
The funny thing is that China, looking down the barrel of demographic collapse, is making enemies and alienating at precisely the point where it needs to be thinking what the world will look like in 50 years time. Treating Africa as a happy hunting ground maybe sound now. Not so much in a few decades. Crushing HK and eyeing up Taiwan maybe exercising temporary power, but the west will be monitoring the longer term view: they need to manage a belligerent China now. But come 2050 the Chinese population will have shrunk by 100 million. By 2070 that will have dropped by a further 400 million. And they will be looking at neighbours, not least India, who will be extremely mindful of historic behaviour and places like HK or Taiwan who will have long standing traditions utterly inimical to Chinese approaches since the time of Mao. China is storing up a whole load of pain for itself.
👏👏👏 A truly remarkable piece by Cymphosium I just had to read after seeing Daniel’s message yesterday and the interesting subject matter! The West giving up Hong Kong to China expecting that democracy and civil liberties would be preserved there was one of the biggest mistakes of the 20th Century and a complete betrayal of its people. The day Chris Patten and the British left was the day that Hong Kong fell to authoritarianism. It’s people’s lives would officially never be the same again. They would gradually lost all their rights over the next twenty-five years or so and the West completely looked the other way. Britain first acquired a lease on Hong Kong in the the treaty with China that followed the two Opium Wars. The First and Second Opium Wars from 1839 to 1842 and 1856 to 1860 were admittedly shameful affairs. The British as well as the French, waged war on China because in Britain’s case, they wanted to keep selling the highly-addictive drug Opium in China which had created dens of addiction in China and poisoned the nation’s arteries.
Also, both sought diplomatic equality and to expand trade rights with China. Prior to the Opium Wars, foreigners were limited to only trading at the Port of Canton and that was it. The British and French and later in the second war with the support of the United States and Russia, sought to force the Qing Dynasty to allow the sale of Opium, give all western nation’s diplomatic equality and open the whole country to foreign trade. The British and French prevailed in the first war but weren’t satisfied with what concessions they did receive. So a second was launched to fully legalize the Opium Trade and get westerners the right to travel and trade throughout China.
The Qing Dynasty was handed a crushing defeat by the British and French Empires. The Chinese were then forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Tianjin which was ratified a year later by the Convention of Beijing. The Chinese would have to massive reparations to the British and French, westerners would now be given diplomatic equality and would be allowed to go in China wherever they wanted, the Opium trade would now be fully legal, British ships would now be allowed to carry indentured Chinese to America, and Hong Kong would be ceded to Britain and become the empire’s crown jewel.
While the way Britain got Hong Kong was wrong to be sure, British rule in Hong Kong though not really democratic until the 1980s, would prove to be quite beneficial to those who lived in the region. They had rights and freedoms they never dreamed of in China. They had freedom of speech, religion, the press, and assembly. The rule of law, English Common Law, modern medicine, advanced technology, economic prosperity, significant infrastructure development, free trade, and a refuge for Chinese folks fleeing the tyranny of Communism were just a few of the benefits British rule brought. In 1997, Britain restored Hong Kong to the Middle Kingdom out of colonial guilt. This was a HUGE mistake! All its citizens Chinese, European, Vietnamese, and others were about to become slaves to the CCP. Gradually, China dismantled democracy in Hong Kong piece by piece.
Jimmy Lai a newspaper editor in his mid to late 70s was thrown in jail for example, because he said something the party didn’t like. He’s locked up in jail pretty much for life and will die there. The chances of him ever being freed are zero. Britain was slow to respond and made significant but insufficient steps to help the people of Hong Kong. Britain and the rest of the West did and said nothing as Lai was put way for life. Nor was any of the slow rollback of Hong Kong’s fledgling democracy ever denounced or responded to by the West. This is just like how the West sat on its a** and did nothing as China annexed Tibet in 1950. The Dai Lama might well have been killed by the Chinese Communists had CIA-trained Tibetans and Nepalese fighters not rescued him and smuggled him out of the country. Sadly, Tibet has now been subjugated for five decades by the Chinese. The West must learn from history, we can’t repeat the mistakes we made in Hong Kong or Tibet. We must protect Taiwan and China’s neighbors from their aggression.
Hong Kong wasn't returned to the mainland out of colonial guilt. The New Territories were always on lease for 100 years and legally had to be returned. The island was held in perpetuity but because its water supply was in the New Territories, it could be cut off by the mainland at any time. Also, TBH, HK was seen as an administrative burden by the UK government at the time.
Many thanks to Guerre and Shalom and @Daniel Clarke-Serret for reposting this, much appreciated!
My pleasure. A very important antidode to the "It will all work out for the best" philosophy which is firmly contradicted in the case of Hong Kong.
Excellent article from Cymposium. We lived in Hong Kong for 23 years and were present during the disappearance of the booksellers that were selling works gossiping about Xi and his girlfriends. Today, it seems that a book about a local Hong Kong hero who did nothing more than amplify the views of the vast majority of Hong Kongers (I remember the massive swing against pro-Beijing parties in the local constituency elections of 2019 which "curiously" were not reported on the Mainland as well as the beautiful spontaneous singing of ordinary Hong Kongers in the luxury shopping malls supporting the pro-democracy protests and the home they loved in 2019/2020 before the sedition law was passed). Thanks for this article. I shall follow your articles closely in future.
Hi Sarah, it's Daniel the editor. Thanks for subscribing. Would love to have some more writing about HK / China on G&S as it isn’t my personal area of expertise. Are you a writer?
Daniel take a look at my article just posted about HK and Xi.
The funny thing is that China, looking down the barrel of demographic collapse, is making enemies and alienating at precisely the point where it needs to be thinking what the world will look like in 50 years time. Treating Africa as a happy hunting ground maybe sound now. Not so much in a few decades. Crushing HK and eyeing up Taiwan maybe exercising temporary power, but the west will be monitoring the longer term view: they need to manage a belligerent China now. But come 2050 the Chinese population will have shrunk by 100 million. By 2070 that will have dropped by a further 400 million. And they will be looking at neighbours, not least India, who will be extremely mindful of historic behaviour and places like HK or Taiwan who will have long standing traditions utterly inimical to Chinese approaches since the time of Mao. China is storing up a whole load of pain for itself.
Excellent point. That one-child policy was always going to come back and bite them in the bum!
Want to learn more about these topics? Check out these titles:
* The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of Modern China by Julia Lovell
* A Modern History of Hong Kong: 1841-1997 by Steve Tsang
* Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy by Shibani Mahtani
* The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dai Lama by Thomas Laird
* Arrested Histories: Tibet, the CIA, and a Forgotten War by Carole McGranahan
* Fortune’s Bazaar: The Making of Hong Kong by Vaudine England
* Silk Silver Opium: The Trade with China That Changed History by Michael Pembroke
* The Opium Business: A History of Crime and Capitalism in Maritime China by Peter Thilly
* Plan Red: China’s Project to Destroy America by Gordon G. Chang
You can add Max Clifford's new biography of Jimmy Lai.
👏👏👏 A truly remarkable piece by Cymphosium I just had to read after seeing Daniel’s message yesterday and the interesting subject matter! The West giving up Hong Kong to China expecting that democracy and civil liberties would be preserved there was one of the biggest mistakes of the 20th Century and a complete betrayal of its people. The day Chris Patten and the British left was the day that Hong Kong fell to authoritarianism. It’s people’s lives would officially never be the same again. They would gradually lost all their rights over the next twenty-five years or so and the West completely looked the other way. Britain first acquired a lease on Hong Kong in the the treaty with China that followed the two Opium Wars. The First and Second Opium Wars from 1839 to 1842 and 1856 to 1860 were admittedly shameful affairs. The British as well as the French, waged war on China because in Britain’s case, they wanted to keep selling the highly-addictive drug Opium in China which had created dens of addiction in China and poisoned the nation’s arteries.
Also, both sought diplomatic equality and to expand trade rights with China. Prior to the Opium Wars, foreigners were limited to only trading at the Port of Canton and that was it. The British and French and later in the second war with the support of the United States and Russia, sought to force the Qing Dynasty to allow the sale of Opium, give all western nation’s diplomatic equality and open the whole country to foreign trade. The British and French prevailed in the first war but weren’t satisfied with what concessions they did receive. So a second was launched to fully legalize the Opium Trade and get westerners the right to travel and trade throughout China.
The Qing Dynasty was handed a crushing defeat by the British and French Empires. The Chinese were then forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Tianjin which was ratified a year later by the Convention of Beijing. The Chinese would have to massive reparations to the British and French, westerners would now be given diplomatic equality and would be allowed to go in China wherever they wanted, the Opium trade would now be fully legal, British ships would now be allowed to carry indentured Chinese to America, and Hong Kong would be ceded to Britain and become the empire’s crown jewel.
While the way Britain got Hong Kong was wrong to be sure, British rule in Hong Kong though not really democratic until the 1980s, would prove to be quite beneficial to those who lived in the region. They had rights and freedoms they never dreamed of in China. They had freedom of speech, religion, the press, and assembly. The rule of law, English Common Law, modern medicine, advanced technology, economic prosperity, significant infrastructure development, free trade, and a refuge for Chinese folks fleeing the tyranny of Communism were just a few of the benefits British rule brought. In 1997, Britain restored Hong Kong to the Middle Kingdom out of colonial guilt. This was a HUGE mistake! All its citizens Chinese, European, Vietnamese, and others were about to become slaves to the CCP. Gradually, China dismantled democracy in Hong Kong piece by piece.
Jimmy Lai a newspaper editor in his mid to late 70s was thrown in jail for example, because he said something the party didn’t like. He’s locked up in jail pretty much for life and will die there. The chances of him ever being freed are zero. Britain was slow to respond and made significant but insufficient steps to help the people of Hong Kong. Britain and the rest of the West did and said nothing as Lai was put way for life. Nor was any of the slow rollback of Hong Kong’s fledgling democracy ever denounced or responded to by the West. This is just like how the West sat on its a** and did nothing as China annexed Tibet in 1950. The Dai Lama might well have been killed by the Chinese Communists had CIA-trained Tibetans and Nepalese fighters not rescued him and smuggled him out of the country. Sadly, Tibet has now been subjugated for five decades by the Chinese. The West must learn from history, we can’t repeat the mistakes we made in Hong Kong or Tibet. We must protect Taiwan and China’s neighbors from their aggression.
Hong Kong wasn't returned to the mainland out of colonial guilt. The New Territories were always on lease for 100 years and legally had to be returned. The island was held in perpetuity but because its water supply was in the New Territories, it could be cut off by the mainland at any time. Also, TBH, HK was seen as an administrative burden by the UK government at the time.
“And in 2026, when a British citizen is sentenced to die in a Chinese prison for exercising the very freedoms Britain promised to protect? Silence.”
Fitting, as Britain itself in 2026 is locking people up for exercising their freedom of speech.
Daniel, see my post just published here. https://sarahbrennan921791.substack.com/p/spring-is-beautiful-in-dordogne-but?r=2w9dfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true