re: We and Britain failed Hong Kong

quote:

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The only lease to expire was the new territories.

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True. And while Britain could have held onto Hong Kong Island & Kowloon after the lease on the New Territories expired in 1997, they would have been difficult to defend militarily & city would have been cut off from its hinterlands.

So Margaret Thatcher offered Deng Xiaoping a deal: Britain would hand over the entire territory - including HK Island & Kowloon - & in exchange Communist China would allow it internal self-government & respect Hong Kong residents' liberties for 50 years. "One country, two systems" became the mantra. This last provision is where China obviously has reneged on the deal.

I suppose that back in 1984 Thatcher could have derecognized the Communist government & recognized the Nationalist government on Taiwan as the legitimate government of all of China, but by that time that ship had sailed - almost the entire world, including the UK & the US, had by then switched their diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. Such a move would have left Britain diplomatically isolated & might have even provoked a war.

It's lamentable the state of liberty in Hong Kong nowadays. But what, precisely, should the USA do about it?