OpinionWashington should stop shooting its mouth off about Hong Kong, when even Donald Trump is being sensible

The chaos in Hong Kong comes as the US-China relationship wanders into dangerous territory. It is now believed in Washington that Beijing can do no right because the Communist Party can only do wrong

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Published: 3:00am, 13 Aug 2019Updated: 3:21am, 13 Aug 2019

Let’s get some simple facts straight: Hong Kong is not in the sovereign hands of the People’s Republic of China due to invasion, communist subversion or anything nefarious. This historic territory was semi-willingly deeded back by the British, with their usual remote devotion to indigenous rights, after they occupied it for more than a century and a half.

Back in the British colonial masters’ days in the sun, they had granted the inhabitants of Hong Kong no more democracy or proper representation than they had other colonies. Today’s pathetic complaints from British MPs in London about Beijing’s rough handling of their former possession are therefore more of a joke than a Mr Bean comedy routine.

Just as farcical is the US State Department’s holier-than-thou attitude to Beijing’s outrage over a meeting between a US consul and Hong Kong pro-democracy activists. This presumably was not the first such inappropriate rendezvous, but it needs to be the last. Beijing complained especially loudly, and while it is true that it complains a lot, on this occasion the rage has merit.

In this climate of tension and with the prospect of tragedy hovering, Hong Kong is not something to be trifled with by otherwise professional US diplomats or bloviating US officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Instead, a simple if quiet apology should have been offered to the Xi Jinping government trying to keep some political distance from the fired-up anti-Hong Kong nationalists; they’d like nothing more than for the People’s Liberation Army to storm Hong Kong with all the ferocity and misplaced rectitude of French paratroopers hitting Algeria.

Will America ever get out of the annoying habit of telling other people how to run their countries? Even when the US is right, which is sometimes the case, unsolicited counsel usually triggers resentment. For his part, President Donald Trump is said to have assured Chairman Xi Jinping in July of his focus on the trade talks, not Hong Kong.