*ASIA <https://eurasiafuture.com/category/asia/>, US/EU
<https://eurasiafuture.com/category/us-eu/>*
Give Hong Kong to Britain And London to China
Written by Adam Garrie <https://eurasiafuture.com/author/adam-garrie/>on
2019-07-04
https://eurasiafuture.com/2019/07/04/give-hong-kong-to-britain-and-london-to-china/
To the wider world, Jeremy Hunt is most famous for the many times that
radio and television presenters mispronounced his surname whilst he has
more recently gained notoriety for being “that boring guy trying to
debate Boris Johnson”. Therefore it might come as a surprise to many
that Jeremy Hunt is also Britain’s Foreign Secretary. Whilst the job of
any UK Foreign Secretary at this time in history should be about
charming the world so as to pave the way for a new era of post-Brexit
free trade, Hunt instead displays all the symptoms of “seller’s remorse”
when it comes to Hong Kong.
Of course, Britain didn’t sell Hong Kong in the formal sense as it never
bought Hong Kong in the formal sense either. Instead, Britain began a
hostile military occupation of Hong Kong in 1841 in the midst of the
First Opium War before forcing the Great Qing to sign a 99 year lease
that granted Britain formal sovereignty over the so-called New
Territories in 1898. Making matters murkier, the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing
granted Britain some of Hong Kong in perpetuity but in reality, by the
20th century, the entire region was viewed by both the UK and Chinese
side as indivisible for pragmatic reasons.
Rather than hear politicians moan about their desired personal
entitlements disguised in vomit enduing talk of human rights, let’s
instead look at basic contract formation and enforcement. Because all
agreements between Britain and the Great Qing were signed under duress,
an argument could be made that all such agreements were null and void
from the get-go. But because both sides de facto performed on the
agreements, this argument may not work.
Then one must remember that during the 1980s as Margaret Thatcher and
Deng Xiaoping negotiated how the end of the 1898 era 99 year lease would
transpire, it became clear that Britain did not want to give Hong Kong
up. But rather than do what people in the real world would have to do
when wanting to extend a lease, the Thatcher government tried to impose
multiple preconditions on the transfer rather than just “show Deng the
money”.
Had Britain said to China, “we’ll pay you X amount of pounds to extend
the least for X amount of years”, then perhaps both sides would have
been satisfied. Although Deng was insistent that Hong Kong be returned,
in negotiations, everything has a price. The fact that Britain didn’t
put its hand in its pocket therefore speaks of arrogance overriding
pragmatism. It’s only a pity that Donald Trump’s _Art of The
Deal_ wasn’t writing when China and Britain signed a declaration
regarding Hong Kong in 1984.
Today, China is vastly wealthier than it was during the 1980s or 1990s
and therefore, if Hong Kong were to be leased or sold, China would
likely demand a higher price that it might have done thirty-five years
ago. This presents a problem for some as a number of people in British
ruling circles privately and sometimes not so privately yearn for Hong
Kong to be ruled not be Xi Jinping but by Queen Elizabeth.
Instead of admitting this, Jeremy Hunt issued the following Tweet:
<https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Hunt>Jeremy
Hunt<https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Hunt>
_✔@Jeremy_Hunt
<https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Hunt><https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Hunt>_
Message to Chinese govt: good relations between countries are based on
mutual respect and honouring the legally binding agreements between
them. That is the best way to preserve the great relationship between
the UK and China
906 <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1146444975674142721>
23:45 - 3 Jul 2019
<https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Hunt/status/1146444975674142721>
Twitter Ads information and privacy
<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
<https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Hunt/status/1146444975674142721>
1,008 people are talking about
this<https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Hunt/status/1146444975674142721>
Hunt later stated that China would face “/serious consequences/” if it
did not uphold elements of the agreements transferring Hong Kong’s
sovereignty back to China even though these agreements have long ago
been fulfilled by China and even exceeded in terms of satisfying the
decades old stipulations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang then gave Hunt the debate
that he has apparently been hankering for with Boris Johnson. Geng
responded to Hunt by saying that the aspiring UK Prime Minister “/seems
to be fantasising in the faded glory of British colonialism and obsessed
with the bad habit of criticising and lecturing on other countries’
affairs condescendingly. The UK at every turn considers itself as a
guardian which is nothing but a delusion/“. Boris clearly has a tough
act to follow when he decides to take on Hunt.
And thus one sees that two countries whose priority should be the
signing of a free trading agreement are instead witnessing relations
deteriorate in real-time because Jeremy Hunt is too timid to just admit
that he wishes Hong Kong was still ruled by Britain.
There are therefore a few solutions. The first would be the classic
English stiff upper lip in which Hunt would have to admit that Hong Kong
is China and simply get on with life. If this were to prove too
difficult in an age in which the stiff upper lip has been eroded by
continental style emotional incontinence, Britain could always ring up
China and say “we want to buy Hong Kong and we’re willing to pay X
amount for the land”.
But seeing as China now has a bigger economy than Britain, perhaps
Britain might not be able to cough up the money. In such an instance a
more novel solution will be required.
If Britain yearns for the pre-1997 days of sovereign over Hong Kong, a
win-win deal could be achieved where Britain trades its financial centre
for Hong Kong. Yes, it is time to consider a deal in which China would
give Hong Kong to Britain in exchange for London being given to China.
Although most Hong Kong people actually want to be part of China under
the one country – two systems model, because we live in an age where mob
rule is more important than actual democracy, one could do like Hillary
Clinton would have us do and just capitulate to which ever side shouts
the loudest and threatens the most damage. Thus, whilst the silent
majority would continue to be silent, the shouting vandals and bandits
would get their wish to once again be British whilst living on the
Pacific ocean made famous by the Beach Boys.
As for London, Monty Python comedian John Cleese recently remarked that
London is no longer an English city. Therefore if London already isn’t
English, it might as well be Chinese. Furthermore, as London is the only
part of England to vote to remain in the European Union, it is
self-evident that a majority of Londoners don’t care about being ruled
by foreigners in any case. Beyond this, London’s soaring crime problem
would probably be best tackled by a Chinese justice system that executes
murderers and other major criminals.
Finally, because actual Chinese food is somewhat different from
westernised Chinese food, liberal Londoners who like to pretend that
they know about geopolitics because of their penchant for being to
pronounce the names of otherwise obscure foodstuffs would feel fully
culturally enriched by the importation of distinctly non-British cuisine
food from the Chinese mainland.
Meanwhile, Britain’s ruling class could jet set from the Home Countries
to Hong Kong in order to feel that in spite of of losing London, Britain
is once again an empire upon which the sun never sets.
This is the true solution to every major crisis from the current
China-UK row over Hong Kong to Brexit. It’s just shocking that a man as
clearly gifted as Jeremy Hunt did not think of this before.
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