Opinion | Hong Kong protests are growing into yet another thorn in relations between China and Britain

London regards strong economic ties with Beijing as vital for its post-Brexit future, but China’s ire over the support for the protests by the two candidates seeking to be Britain’s next leader underlines the difficulty of the task

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The British national flag flies in the foreground during a protest on July 1, as Hong Kong, a former British colony, marks the 22nd anniversary of its return to Chinese sovereignty. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 4:00pm, 5 Jul 2019Updated: 8:14pm, 5 Jul 2019

Relations between Britain and China are cooling sharply in the wake of the worst political unrest in Hong Kong for decades. While this represents a big political headache for Beijing, the challenge may be even greater for London in the context of its post-Brexit dependence on growing economic ties with fast-growing economies in Asia and beyond.

In recent days, the two candidates running to become the next British prime minister, Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson, have squarely defended the demonstrators. Hunt, currently foreign secretary, called on Beijing not to use the protests against the extradition bill and Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as a “pretext for repression”.

Despite this rhetoric, both men will be aware that bilateral relations went into a deep freeze in 2012 when then prime minister David Cameron offended Beijing by meeting the Dalai Lama. It is for this reason that the Conservative governments of both Cameron and Theresa May ratcheted down human rights concerns about China, with relations entering what was called a “golden era” after Xi Jinping’s visit to Britain in 2015.

Conservative ministers have increasingly perceived that enhancing ties with Beijing is in Britain’s interest. They figure that Xi could be in power well into the 2020s, and see an opportunity to develop a relationship that could make a significant contribution to Britain’s prosperity for a generation to come.

In this context, it is not just Labour’s leader Jeremy Corbyn, but also Washington, which has raised concerns about the degree to which London is perceived to be cosying up to Beijing, especially under the previous government of Cameron, when then finance minister George Osborne pledged to make Britain “China’s best partner in the West”.

This ruffled the feathers of the Obama administration, following Britain’s decision to become a founder member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which is being championed by Beijing as a potential alternative to the World Bank.