Hong Kong

It does directly affect us! If you have a binding agreement with another party and that party blatantly flouts that agreement to the detriment of its people then it is the business of the co respondent to at least express their concern and disapproval! We can and should at do that and not take the attitude of shrugging our shoulders! This situation is nothing like Iraq! We were not a colonial power in Iraq and we have never had the responsibility of the welfare of its people as we did with HK!

Anja HK has never been a democracy in any way that we would recognise under British rule. Any moves in that direction were too little and too late as the end of the lease loomed. Some people think that if the British had thought longer term and allowed universal franchise and direct elections decades earlier, the roots of democracy would have had time to flourish and deepen and have changed the whole dynamic with China. But that’s as may be but no one should be under any illusion that in essence there was no meaningful democracy in HK under the British - it was a colony

This country has been renowned for interfering look what happened in Iraq, through/since the death of Saddam, ISIS was formed-----why can't we keep out of things which don't directly concern us.?

What exactly can we do about it ?

It was only a thought Anja, bearing in mind the Communist inspired riots of the past!
The agreement signed with China is valid until 2049! That is why we as signatories have a duty to protest at the obvious flouting of this agreement by China. I too fear for these young people and the whole of Hong Kong.

This was always going to happen sooner or later. You cannot hand over a flourishing democracy to a totalitarian state and expect two,different systems to operate.

A young friend of mine has just removed herself and her family back to the UK from Hong Kong as she has seen the writing on the wall.

I don’t buy into conspiracy theories. The young people of Hong Kong face an uncertain future and it is essential that other countries and the UN express their support for their democratic rights. Extradition to China is tantamount to eroding these.

Exactly Callistemon! The fact that we are the only imperial power that former colonys want to stay closely aligned to must surely tell us that perhaps we weren't quite as dreadful as we're now all led to believe! To fly the colonial flag would indicate the desperation these poor people feel. However DH wondered if perhaps the violence was perpetrated in part by mainland China? The perfect excuse to finally wield the "big stick"! Perhaps he's wrong, I sincerely hope so.

stop treating those Chinese authorities in terms similar to them being subjects of Imperialist Britain at its height.

Amazing, though, isn't it, that so many people around the world preferred being subjects of Imperialist Britain to what has evolved since then in many places.

Perhaps that is why so many are eager to belong to the Commonwealth.

Would you put a trade agreement before people's rights and freedoms?

Spot on, Callistemon. Many Hongkong citizens worked for the colonial administration and we have a moral responsibility to them and all HK citizens to do as much as we can to protect their rights that were negotiated at the time of the handover.

As a Special Administrative Region Hong Kong (and Macau) is autonomous and Basic Law should apply there until 2047 (Macau 2049). Some responsibilities do rest with the Central Government.

I am not sure what this has to do with your view that our government is a shambles, Grandad.
Would you put a trade agreement before people's rights and freedoms? If so and trading with China is of paramount importance, why is trading with America so despised?

We may not be responsible for Hong Kong any more, and I think we probably did the best we could at the time
of the handover. Like others I'm amazed that it's lasted as long as it has before a complete take over by Beijing, and of course we can do nothing about it,but I don't think it hurts to let the people of this former colony know that we do care, and are not happy with situation they now find themselves in. My DH was in the RN in his youth, and remembers H.K with great affection.

Well Grandad1943 I doubt that it would make any difference anyway.

Britain no longer any responsibility for Hong Kong. That responsibility is now in the hands of the Hong Kong legislating Authority and the Chinese Government.

This crisis is a dispute between those who wish to protest against new legislation and the above authorities.

The UK government should stay out of that dispute and stop treating those Chinese authorities in terms similar to them being subjects of Imperialist Britain at its height.

This shambles of a government has brought enough problems to these shores and opening up further relationship difficulties with China and its province will not assist in gaining any trade agreements in an area where a third of the world's population lives.

In mainline China the TV screens are going blank when foreign broadcasters showed the protesters.
The population are being given an uplifting account of the “celebrations” marking the anniversary of the handover.
I think the real drama is beginning to seep through.

I have spoken with Chinese people who didn't know about Tiananmen Square at the time. It was not widely broadcast in mainland China. Crushing these demonstrations of dissent will not be as easy as Tiananmen Square with the world watching this time. But you're right Pamelaj1 they are risking so much and I am fearful for the demonstrators.

My mum used to tease my dad for years afterwards.
The advice was to send your valuables home.
Dad packed up one or two things to send back to his mum and dad.
Kept us there though ??

Thank goodness we aren’t there now.
The Chinese’s Government are unlikely to step back from anything that suits them.
Quite honestly they’ve waited longer than I thought before starting to make their moves.
Those young activists are risking so much.

Pamela I had my first child about a month before the trouble started so me and your mum were having the same experience It was a very very uncomfortable time I remember the taxis wouldn’t pick British people up and some of the shops didn’t want to sell to you

I would be terrified of the proposed new law to allow Hong Kong citizens to be tried in China.

Wouldn't anybody?

Carrie Lam has been seen by the Honk Kong people to be a puppet of China at the expense of the people and who could argue this may well be the case.

If I were the Chines Government and Carrie Lam I would step back from this legislation which is not a high priority, unless there is as supposed some menace behind the need for it.!

As Jane said, we only owned up to Boundary Street on Kowloon side.
No water.

They should have stayed with the UK. Better the devil you know
Most of the territory was leased to Britain for 99 years. There was no choice about handing it back. The lease was up, full stop.

The only thing that was negotiable was the status of Hongkong citizens after the hardback and the ‘one country, two systems’ was supposed to last for 50 years.

There was no choice to do that for HK. We allowed things to develop there without proper democracy - if we’d introduced the latter, it might have been possible.

They should have stayed with the UK. Better the devil you know !
I remember landing at Kai Tak in 1997, a hairy experience but worse for those on the ground. It was a stopover before Oz.

The one advantage HK has over China is tgst we actually receive filmed footage of what is actually happening there and all the various news outlets are able to film and report back to the rest of the world. However I would never underestimate the Chinese state. Basically they know because of their economic power, the West will tut tut and that will be it. I think the protesters are very brave

Bluebelle, I was only a child so didn’t really realise the horror of it all but did see the Cantonese newspapers that wereto stuck on shop windows with the appalling photos of mutilated bodies that had come down the river from China.

My mum had a baby not long before the water restrictions .We have photos of her (baby) being bathed in a bucket.

We got caught out after curfew (about five minutes over) and had to be taken back in a jeep with armed guards Pamela I had a couple of month old baby it was really scary