What does US hot air over a Chinese ‘balloon’ mean for Hong Kong?

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While the whole world was wondering what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s ice-breaking visit to Beijing might bring to the China-US relationship, a wandering civilian unmanned airship ensured disappointment.

What became clear is that US President Joe Biden has lost the ability to set the political agenda in the face of tough domestic politics. While the White House may have wanted to keep a low profile in the case of the airship, as soon as the opposition took up the issue, Biden made a U-turn. Tough diplomatic language was deployed, unwarranted force was used. One might expect more U-turns as the presidential election cycle begins.

Although Biden paid lip service to “work[ing] with China” in his State of the Union address, confrontation will be the main theme of the China-US relationship.

What does this mean for Hong Kong? When many of us are celebrating the resumption of normal travel between the mainland and Hong Kong, or are following the row over a documentary, let’s not lose sight of the significance of this “balloon”. Normalisation of the bilateral relationship, political or otherwise, is not realistic.

However, Hong Kong need not despair. Our traditional role as the communication channel between the East and West remains strong. But does “West” necessarily mean the traditional industrialised economies?

“East” and “West” are relative concepts. When the monk Xuanzang went to the West for the Buddhist classics, he covered South Asia and Central Asia, while Marco Polo in exploring the “East” also took in Asia Minor and the Middle East. Instead of sticking to the occidental geographical perspective of “Far East”, “Middle East” and “Near East”, we could adopt the oriental one of “Near West”, “Middle West” and “Far West”.

Why don’t we focus on the Near West and Middle West? With our traditional advantage in service sectors, be they financial, legal or logistics, we could still thrive as a service hub in these emerging regions. Coincidentally, these countries fall within the central government’s Belt and Road Initiative. The chief executive’s recent visit to the Middle East, or Middle West, has set a good direction.

Hong Kong must seek to achieve stronger economic integration with the mainland, which will be, as it has always been, a strong backer of our own development. With the implementation of the Greater Bay Area plan, we can ride the tide of innovation and technology, work together with our neighbouring cities, build on our century-old foundation and develop a set of new “Chinese standards” to serve the new era.

The remainder of the 21st century is full of uncertainty and opportunities. All we need to do is to move away from our comfort zones and expand our horizons.

Andrew Lam Siu-lo, Legislative Council member

Truth about Nord Stream explosions must be uncovered

I refer to the article, “White House rejects Seymour Hersh report that US was behind Nord Stream sabotage” (February 8).

If the US indeed sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines, this was an act of war against Russia, which has more nuclear weapons than any other nation on Earth. Russia believes that the United States is responsible for this act which adversely contributed to climate change and put Europe’s energy security at risk.

If we don’t get to the bottom of what really happened, the incident will create a chasm between Russia and the US which could prevent reconciliation or diplomacy between two of the world’s most powerful nations.

The truth of what really happened to Nord Stream must be exposed one way or another.

Michael Pravica, Henderson, Nevada, US