Hong Kong has a valuable role to play in the US-China conflict

Having been targeted for sanctions and pressured to say its exports are made in China, Hong Kong has some principled positions it must defend at all costs

One vital role for the city is to remind Beijing and Washington that we must strengthen the global institutions and processes that have served us well

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Notices reading “Made in Hong Kong” are displayed among piles of face masks in a shop in Hong Kong on August 12. Pressure to label Hong Kong exports as “Made in China” and sanctions over the national security law could push the city into playing an active role in the US-China trade conflict. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:15am, 12 Oct 2020Updated: 6:35am, 12 Oct 2020

In the midst of a fascinating discussion last week with what may best be called a group of concerned Hong Kong citizens, one friend threw out a surprising question: “What role might Hong Kong play in terms of the US-China conflict?”

My first response was that it was a preposterous question. When elephants are fighting, the first and most responsible reflex of minnows like us should be to keep well out of the way.

After the terrible traumas of last year’s protests, this year’s national security law controversy and the huge challenges of tackling the Covid-19 pandemic and the massive harm it has inflicted on the lives of so many people, many might say there are far too many crises to manage at home for us to inject ourselves into other people’s arguments.

As the conversation continued, though, I felt a more nuanced response was needed. Perhaps Hong Kong does have a role to play. Perhaps it has no choice.

Having been targeted for sanctions because of the national security law and pressured to say its exports are made in China rather than Hong Kong, the city has some principled positions it must defend at all costs – not least its autonomous status in the World Trade Organization and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum.

Anyway, the global economic contest that has continued over the past three years has been less a US-China conflict and more a US-versus-everyone-else conflict. China has come to represent a uniquely hateable bogeyman for the United States, but China is far from alone as a target for US venom.

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