China’s crackdown will do untold damage – Glory to Hong Kong!
The threads between Canada and Hong Kong are long, occasionally ugly, mostly glorious and now increasingly stretched.
The blame for this lies with the Chinese Communist Party, which has reneged on every agreement it has signed and every public statement of the territory’s independence.
Its increasingly anti-democratic, vicious crackdown on the most basic of civil liberties may, to Beijing, look like an effective tool towards the subjugation of a city that has always thought differently from those on the mainland.
In truth, it will do untold damage to Hong Kong as a financial centre, and in time will we hope to lead once again to the scenes of pro-democracy protestors cocking a snook at the regime and its fear of modernity.
Selfishly, Britain is benefitting from China’s crackdown. Vast numbers of intelligent, ambitious and driven Hongkongers have made their home here, in effective exile.
It is to the credit of an often difficult-to-credit Conservative government that the attitude to Hongkongers looking to flee China was so charitable, so welcoming, damn the geopolitical consequences.
But it would be better if those Hongkongers building their lives here were doing it through their own choice, rather than their effective banishment from their home.
What China has done to Hong Kong is a tragedy. What does it tell you about a government that it is afraid of a song? Those firms which turn a blind eye to it – or as has been the case for some China-centric banks, leaned into it – will not be judged kindly in the history books.
When they are written when the final chapter is told, it will be the same story as ever in history: in the end, the people win.
Now and evermore, Glory to Hong Kong!