HONG KONG — Should Europe be more assertive with Beijing regarding the crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong?
China would like the answer to that question to be an emphatic “no.” But there’s much European leaders can do — not just to protect the region’s liberal, pluralistic qualities, but also to advance European interests in encouraging China both to open its economy and play by global rules.
To do so, however, means going beyond the kind of platitudes German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered in Beijing Friday about her discussions with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
“We have, in connection with human rights and the rule of law, of course also spoken at length about Hong Kong,” she said. “In the current situation, every effort must be made to avoid violence. Solutions can only be found politically, that is to say through dialogue.”
Putting pressure on China over Hong Kong is an opportunity for leaders like Merkel to put relations with Beijing on a strong footing.
Beijing’s position is that Hong Kong is part of China — what happens there is Beijing’s business alone. Even mild calls for restraint, such as that made by the EU in mid-August, are rejected by Beijing as “unacceptable meddling” in the country’s internal affairs.
Some in Europe would be happy to agree. With the German economy slumping, U.S. President Donald Trump escalating his trade war, and economic wobbles in China itself, it’s tempting to put business ties ahead of a discussion about democratic values.
Never mind the appeal made in an open letter by Joshua Wong and other pro-democracy activists for help in their struggle to maintain the city’s freedoms and push for democracy.
There’s also the fact that, if tensions diminish, there would be less need for calls on the Chinese government and Hong Kong authorities to adopt a conciliatory approach to the protesters.
On Wednesday, Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam said she would formally withdraw the extradition law that launched this summer’s unrest. The announcement — made just before Merkel embarked on a three-day tour of China — marked a change of approach after weeks of intransigence, one that could open the way to ending the increasingly violent confrontations.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing | Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images
Moreover, intervention by either soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army garrisoned in Hong Kong or paramilitary forces gathered just across the city’s northern border now looks highly unlikely. Hong Kong’s police force, though widely regarded as having reacted with unnecessary brutality to protesters, has not looked likely to lose control of the city streets.
This is not, however, a time to take the path of least resistance. Putting pressure on China over Hong Kong is not just the right thing to do. It’s an opportunity for leaders like Merkel to put relations with Beijing on a strong footing. By standing up for European values, European leaders have a chance to further European interests.
As Hong Kong’s protesters have shown, pressure can bring results when dealing with Beijing. Though the city’s pro-democracy opposition has suffered various setbacks over the years, it has also registered some notable victories. A mass protest of 500,000 people in 2003 led to the withdrawal of a sedition law and the early resignation of the city’s first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa.
In 2012, a proposal to make patriotic national education compulsory in schools was withdrawn after protests by students and parents. And in 2017, the city’s third chief executive, CY Leung, was so unpopular with the public at the end of his first term, he was apparently barred from standing for a second by Beijing.
European leaders should also note that for the protesters in Hong Kong, the dangers will not dissipate with the end of the tensions. Lam’s about-face notwithstanding, in the long term, Beijing and its proxies in Hong Kong will likely respond to this summer’s struggle with a determined push to accelerate the erosion of the city’s freedoms.
European leaders should not shy from highlighting the damage that would follow if China takes a hard line on Hong Kong.
That’s what happened after all in the aftermath of the 2014 Occupy movement, with stepped-up legal harassment of opposition figures. The arrest on August 30 of six leading activists, including one of the protest’s leaders, Joshua Wong, suggests the push back has already begun.
In staking out its response, Europe has various cards it can play. It can highlight that, unlike the United States under Trump, the European Union is not fighting a trade war with China. While European countries share many of the U.S.’s grievances over Chinese trade and business practices, it is interested in finding ways of working together that can benefit both sides.
Europe has an opportunity to take advantage of the pressure from the U.S. to obtain goals of its own: an end to China’s protectionism, intellectual property theft and other bad trade and business habits; a rollback of Chinese interference around the fringes of Europe; a halt to Beijing’s efforts to unduly influence overseas Chinese communities; and assurances that Hong Kong will retain the freedoms promised in its Basic Law.
Protesters hold a vigil for democracy in Hong Kong in front of the Chancellery in Berlin | Paul Zinken/AFP via Getty Images
European leaders should not shy from highlighting the damage that would follow if China takes a hard line on Hong Kong, even if it doesn’t deploy troops or paramilitary police. If, for example, Lam were to invoke the city’s emergency regulations ordinance — a colonial era law giving the government draconian powers to detain people and suspend civil liberties — the city’s role as a financial and trade hub would take a drastic hit.
They could also stress how pressuring companies to fall in line with China’s political line, be that by shedding executives or investigating staff who had supported the protests on social media, as has happened at Cathay Pacific, can only further discourage European countries from accepting outbound Chinese investment
China would not welcome the pressure. Yet in their dealings with the country’s rulers, European leaders have more room for maneuver than they often appear to believe. In Hong Kong, the protesters have forced Lam to compromise. Europe, too, has the opportunity to use its leverage to help end Hong Kong’s conflict and preserve the region’s unique place as an outpost of liberty and liberalism.
Simon Cartledge is the author of “A System Apart: Hong Kong’s Political Economy from 1997 Until Now” (Penguin, 2017).