British Policy toward Hong Kong and its Political Reform

Abstract

Twenty years after the return of Hong Kong from British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, this paper examines the UK’s policy toward Hong Kong over the last decade, with a particular focus on its approach toward the ongoing and intensifying political and constitutional debates in Hong Kong, which have partial origins in the British colonial legacy. The paper argues that the UK has been attempting a delicate balancing act in relation to Hong Kong between a number of factors: the growing importance of relations with China as a whole, the particular opportunities offered by UK–Hong Kong links, the changing and more contested political landscape in Hong Kong, the occasional intervention of British politics, and the agreements on Hong Kong’s future to which the UK was party in the 1980s. These reflect tensions between pragmatism and idealism, and in conclusion, the paper discusses what the case of Hong Kong says more broadly about the making of British foreign policy.