A large Hong Kong delegation led by Hong Kong Executive Council Convenor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee recently returned from the United Kingdom. 

Visiting from Oct 30 to Nov 8, the delegation consisted of businesspeople and Legislative Council members, meeting with various politicians, representatives, think-tankers, and local businesspeople. Meetings were held to discuss the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the latest amendments to the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Agreement, which helped enhance the British interlocutors’ understanding of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, making the trip a fruitful experience.

The trip marked an important breakthrough in Britain’s relations with China as a whole and with the HKSAR in particular.

In recent years, ties have frayed owing to the policies of the last British government and its criticisms of the National Security Law implemented in the HKSAR, which included accusations of violating the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Likewise, London has actively encouraged Hong Kong residents to migrate to the UK through the British National Overseas (BNO) program, and thus direct engagement with Hong Kong basically broke down. Now, as the new British government is taking a softer approach to China, a space has been opened for engagement to resume on a more pragmatic level.

Hong Kong continues to be a critical location for British businesses and the historical base of their Asia-Pacific operations. This is not replicable in any other location in Asia as nowhere else has quite the same economic, legal and geographical advantages of Hong Kong

If the above wasn’t a clue, the primary issue in Britain-Hong Kong relations is the mindset of the UK to continue to view the city through a colonial frame of mind. Although British rule in the city ceased in 1997, the UK continues to believe itself to be a “protector” and “guardian” of Hong Kong, assuming that it has more right to shape the city’s future than China, the sovereign country to which it belongs. This is because Britain is generally not critical of its imperial legacy and continues to frame itself in benevolent terms. To this end, figures such as Lord (Chris) Patten have continued to wield political prestige and influence they don’t merit, despite never having been democratically selected or elected by the people they claim to “stand for”. Britain ultimately believes it still “has a rightful stake” in Hong Kong. Because of the city’s past and free-market legacy, the city is likewise romanticized by conservatives, who add to the “hostile lobby” pushing for tough policies against the city and China as a whole.

However, this should not be allowed to undermine engagement. First, Hong Kong continues to be a critical location for British businesses and the historical base of their Asia-Pacific operations. This is not replicable in any other location in Asia as nowhere else has quite the same economic, legal and geographical advantages of Hong Kong. This is especially so for huge financial enterprises such as HSBC, which are still intertwined between the two locations. Hong Kong thus remains the financial and commercial hub of Asia and any British attempt to distance itself would be wholly self-defeating and severely damaging. Thus, this is important not just for Britain’s relations with China but any other country in the region. Through Hong Kong, business can be conducted not only with the Chinese mainland but all Southeast Asia too.

Second, the cultural ties between the two sides remain very strong. Since the latter half of the 20th century, Britain has been home to a large Hong Kong diaspora, not just in the BNOs, with many individuals having traveled back and forth between the two places. Thus people-to-people ties, which extend to business, tourism, education and exchanges, must be kept strong. It would be unthinkable for this to be destroyed purely out of a political vendetta, and against the national interests of all parties involved. So, despite the political lobbying to be “hostile” to Hong Kong, it is imperative for the British government to “stay open” to the city, given the huge human and societal toll the opposite path would take.

In short, engagement must remain the rule of the day in respect to Britain, China as a whole, and the HKSAR. There are some parties who would prefer to see the city fail and be suffocated by isolation purely because it does not fit their ideological vision of governance, but this is a denial of reality that fails to appreciate the importance Britain has in continuing to engage with the city. Although the British Empire is over, the economic and cultural integration that Hong Kong and the UK share means that it is essential to maintain a positive working relationship.

The author is a British political and international-relations analyst.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.