GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Hong Kong and the Appeasement of China

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Ian Morris
Board of Contributors

Sep 18, 2019 | 18:02 GMT

A sticker at a bus stop during a pro-democracy march in Hong Kong on Sept. 15, 2019.

A sticker at a bus stop during a pro-democracy march in Hong Kong on Sept. 15. Hong Kong's reunion with mainland China was generally popular after the 1997 handover from the United Kingdom, but attitudes have changed with China's increasing assertiveness.

(IVAN ABREU/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The protests in Hong Kong reinforce a growing sentiment in the United States and elsewhere that China is turning into a threat to the international system.
  • Compared with the history of the British Empire in Asia, China's extension of its power abroad has been mild. But the world is less harsh than it used to be, and China's actions can be seen as aggressive by contemporary standards.
  • Looking back from 2047, when China will be free to change Hong Kong in whatever way it likes, historians might well see Western behavior of the past 30 years not as an adaptation to China's strength but as appeasement.

Concern over mainland China's intentions has been mounting in Hong Kong since well before the 2014 "Umbrella Revolution," as it has in capitals around the world. One of the few issues that regularly receives bipartisan support in Washington is the need to confront China over its trade policies, and there is a growing sentiment that after becoming a valued contributor to the international system in the 1990s-2000s, China is now turning into a threat to it. But is this correct? Should Hong Kongers really want the British back?...

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