China’s hard line on Hong Kong only undermines confidence in the city. So why do it?

Michael C. Davis says the repeated dismissals of the relevance of the Sino-British Joint Declaration are unsettling, particularly as there is no question the document is a treaty under international law, and binding on its signatories

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Deng Xiaoping understood the importance of China’s solemn commitments to Hong Kong when he asked Hong Kong investors to “put their hearts at ease”. Unfortunately, the past two years have seen an erosion of such a commitment. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:02am, 16 Aug 2018Updated: 5:17am, 16 Aug 2018

Is Hong Kong under the “one country, two systems” model a sand castle that can simply be washed away when China gets fed up with it?

While the answer may be “yes” as a matter of sheer power, it is clearly “no” both as a legal matter and as a common-sense political commitment.

There is no question, given Hong Kong’s location, that Beijing could pretty much do as it pleases in Hong Kong. One doubts anything more than diplomatic protests would stand in the way of a repressive Beijing move to seize absolute direct and unfettered control. Of course, the economic and political fallout of such a move is unfathomable.

Unfortunately, Chinese officials and their local Hong Kong supporters often express such a position of unfettered control, claiming China’s absolute authority in Hong Kong, unrestrained by the Sino-British Joint Declaration, as Shiu Sin Por did in an August 14 column on this site.

Johannes Chan and Wing Kay Po of the Bar Council had, also on SCMP , previously laid out and explained the importance and binding character of the solemn legal commitments in the Joint Declaration.