What the Iron Lady Learned From Hong Kong

Editorial of The New York Sun | June 13, 2019

As Communist Chinese authorities tear-gas the millions protesting for freedom in the streets of Hong Kong, we can’t help but wonder what Margaret Thatcher might be thinking. She’s gone, of course, and we nurse no doubts that she was, and will always be, one of the 20th century’s heroines. Yet what is the Iron Lady thinking in the purgatory that must be traversed by free leaders who treat with communists?

Thatcher was the British prime minister who, in 1982, launched, with China’s Communist Party boss, Deng Xiaoping, the negotiations that would seal the fate of the British Crown Colony. Britain was in a tight spot, for sure. Its lease on the vast majority of Hong Kong, the New Territories, would expire in 1997. It had, though, permanent sovereignty over the core of the Crown Colony.........The treaty Mrs. Thatcher inked — the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 — gave up that permanent possession in return for a promise. It was known as “one country, two systems.”..............

Almost immediately it became clear that it was a vain hope. Experienced veterans of the Cold War had always warned that the Communists, being Communists, would betray their promise. ............This is a moment to remember that the kind of violence we’re witnessing in Hong Kong is the only foundation of communist rule in China and elsewhere..............To Read More....