governed at arm’s length from London to

a Chinese sovereignty, it still remains one

of the freest and most successful cities in Asia.

Is that because of the guarantees made by

Britain and China to Hong Kong?

Not really.

It is really because of the extent to which

people in Hong Kong have a profound sense

of what it means or should mean to be a citizen

of a great city.

It doesn’t make them less Chinese, but it

does make them understand the relationship

between pluralism, the rule of law, freedom

of speech and all those bits of the software

of democracy and their long-term prosperity.

China, in the last few years, has been rowing

back on the promises it made to Hong Kong.

It has been increasing its pressure on Hong Kong’s windpipe.

It has been, frankly, breaching both the spirit

and the letter of the treaty it signed with

Britain for 50 years after 1997.

It has done that by attacking the judiciary,

it has done it by rolling back attempts to

make Hong Kong more democratic.

It has done it by intervening in court cases,

by abducting people from Hong Kong’s streets,

by a rather insidious pressure on the autonomy

of education and on civil society, and its

office in Hong Kong has increasingly tried

to play a part in the running of the city.

I think it is very important that the whole

world makes clear to China, and not just Britain,

which has a particular role, but the whole

world makes it clear to China that if they

want to show that we can trust them in the

21st century, then Hong Kong is a very good

place to start.