Can we please have a bit of business realism in our dealings with China

Linda J. Dodson

HSBC could have remained silent, which might have been more in keeping with its claim to apolitical status, but this is to misunderstand the nature of doing business with China, where silence is taken as opposition. To expect a bank that makes the bulk of its profits in Hong Kong to say nothing on a matter Beijing takes so seriously is simply not realistic.

Hong Kong is no longer part of the UK, but of China; the territory has little option but to bend to its will. Yet the one country, two systems set-up is, in truth, as valuable to China as a conduit to the West as Hong Kong is to the West as a way into China. Beijing has no interest in dismantling it. The smart thing to do is for Westerners to enter into a dialogue with Beijing on how its best features might be preserved.

On the specifics of the security law, it is hard to think of any government that would tolerate violent protests on its streets for long. Certainly the governments of both the US and Britain do not intend to stand idly by while protesters, however legitimate their complaint, defy lockdown edict to run riot. Even the statue of a former slave trader needs some protection. The hypocrisy of condoning riots in Hong Kong but condemning them on our own streets is obvious.

Despite the scale of the provocation, there has notably been only one shooting so far in Hong Kong, and even in that case, the victim survived. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong economy has gone to hell in a handcart. China’s restraint is in most respects much more remarkable than its crackdown.

When it comes to China, there is good reason to worry about security, unfair trading practice, intellectual property theft and undue reliance on Chinese products, though frankly it would have been nice if these concerns had been taken more seriously 20 years ago, when there was some chance of doing something about them. It’s too late now; the horse has long since bolted.

China is already an economic and military superpower and, unlike the former Soviet Union, too well integrated into the global economy to be easily contained. Given this reality, the next question is what you do about it. Some degree of engagement would seem a rather better strategy than whingeing demonisation, which may have some populist appeal but is otherwise pointless.

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