What Is Britain’s Responsibility to Hong Kong?
Even if London wanted to play a bigger role in its former colony’s impasse with China, it lacks the leverage.
When millions of people took to the streets of Hong Kong in recent weeks to protest an extradition bill that would make it easier for people arrested in the city to face trial elsewhere, including mainland China, several countries, such as Canada and the U.S., as well as the European Union defended the protesters.
But for perhaps no country is this more personal than Britain. As Hong Kong’s former colonial power, Britain played a primary role in the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty more than two decades ago. It’s also a signatory to the agreement guaranteeing Hong Kong’s
