Boris Johnson
The UK is heading for a damaging showdown with China as it takes on Beijing over Hong Kong and Huawei Technologies.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has criticised Beijing’s planned imposition of a security law on the former British territory of Hong Kong, and is taking steps to exclude Huawei from its 5G mobile networks by lining up potential replacements.
The prime minister and his team have become far more sceptical of China since the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK
China’s Hong Kong representation delivered a clear message to Britain on Wednesday evening to keep its hands off.
Johnson, in an op-ed published in the Times of London and the South China Morning Post newspapers on Wednesday, offered a haven for as many as three million Hong Kong inhabitants if China imposes the security law, escalating tensions with Beijing.
Plans for what was supposed to have been a year of EU-China dialogue were derailed by the coronavirus pandemic
Underscoring and complicating Johnson’s bind, the two British institutions that dominate Hong Kong’s banking system on Wednesday lined up behind Beijing: HSBC Holdings, born in the 19th century as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp, and Standard Chartered both endorsed the proposed new security law.
