City Beat | Inside China's hard stance on UK visit
Beijing's refusal to let MPs enter was a message to Hong Kong and mainland, as well as Britain
As Hongkongers bundle up against the season's first cold front, the relationship between China and Britain has encountered a diplomatic chill of its own after China denied a group of British lawmakers entry to Hong Kong, where they had hoped to hold an inquiry on the implementation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Both China and Britain have accused each other of damaging their relationship. Last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron criticised as counterproductive Beijing's decision to bar the lawmakers' entry. Beijing countered that the British were being confrontational, and dismissed the British claim that it has a "moral obligation" towards Hong Kong after the handover.
An interesting coincidence further revealed the frost that has engulfed Sino-British relations. Last Wednesday, the day the Observatory issued the winter's first cold-weather warning, visiting Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui gave the keynote speech at the first annual conference of the China-US Exchange Foundation. In it, he invoked Hong Kong's colonial history and stressed that China would never forget how, when it was less powerful, it had no say in diplomatic relations.
That Zhang raised the issue of Hong Kong in an event to discuss China's ties with the United States showed a dilemma Beijing faces: It wants to keep Hong Kong strictly a domestic issue, but Beijing also realises that it is inevitably turning into a diplomatic one.
Since Xi Jinping became president in March 2013, he has successfully consolidated his power to build up his strongman image. US President Barack Obama, who met him during the Apec leaders' summit, said Xi was able to build up his power "more quickly than any Chinese leader in decades".
Xi understands well that diplomacy means the politics of power, combining hard and soft approaches. In a speech at the Communist Party Central Committee's recent foreign affairs conference, he emphasised China's need to build "a global network of partnership".