Opinion | To improve relations with the US, China should rethink its Hong Kong strategy
- Hong Kong has become one of the sticking points between China and the US. In the post-Deng era, Beijing has pivoted away from promises made to Hong Kong and failed to honour international norms
It is a timely call. The situation in Hong Kong has been one of the reasons Washington and Beijing are pulling apart. The United States will soon begin to recalibrate its strategy under a new president, Joe Biden. A change of leadership is an opportune time re-examine bilateral relations.
But it is easier said than done. For relations to improve, Beijing needs to do a great deal of rethinking too, and to re-examine its Hong Kong strategy.
Let’s go back to the beginning. The Joint Declaration was signed by China and Britain on December 19, 1984, and later registered with the United Nations. As the clock struck midnight on July 1, 1997, Chinese president Jiang Zemin said at the handover ceremony that “from now on, Hong Kong compatriots have become true masters of this Chinese land”.
He also said: “History will remember Mr Deng Xiaoping for his creative concept of ‘one country, two systems’.”
01:24
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says she gets around sanctions by collecting her salary in cash
Deng – the man who famously said it did not matter if a cat was black or white as long as it could catch mice – opened up China’s state-planned economy to foreign investment and private enterprise when he became the paramount leader. This policy has led to China’s ascent to become the world’s second-largest economy.
