My TakeHunt stirs a diplomatic storm in a teacup

The British foreign secretary has been pounding his chest and threatening ‘serious consequences’ for China if it dares unleash repression on extradition bill protesters

This may make Hunt look more important than he is, but it will mean absolutely nothing here in Hong Kong

2-MIN READ2-MIN

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:19pm, 5 Jul 2019Updated: 5:30am, 6 Jul 2019

Unlike their American cousins, British politicians playing tough with China have generally not fared well lately.

So it’s rather puzzling that British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has been pounding his chest and pretending his nation still rules the waves when he threatens “serious consequences” for China if it dares unleash repression on Hong Kong protesters. Remember the Sino-British Joint Declaration, he said, his finger wagging in the air.

Since neither the Hong Kong, nor the central government was plotting Tiananmen 2.0, Hunt could claim it was his warning that saved the day.

He might be disappointed, though, to read a sagacious analysis in the Financial Times, the required reading of the British ruling elite, that Hong Kong police had been deliberately holding back to let young protesters run amok and discredit themselves.

Of course, it has been a long time since Beijing cared what Whitehall thought about anything, especially China’s own domestic affairs.

Last time, when Hunt’s one-time cabinet colleague and now former defence minister Gavin Williamson threatened to send Britain’s next-generation aircraft carrier, the Queen Elizabeth, still being built and behind schedule, to the South China Sea to show China who’s the boss, he was promptly castigated by Downing Street.