FPJ Edit: Britain’s turn now to sanction China

China is fast becoming the pariah of the international community. On Monday, the British Government suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and imposed an arms embargo against its former colony to protest the draconian security law which fully erodes the territory’s autonomy. Australia and Canada had already suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong protesting against the security law unilaterally imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong earlier in the month. The stringent provisions empower the Chinese authorities to persecute Hong Kong citizens demanding nothing more than that the one-country, two-systems promise made at the time of the handover of the colony to China in 1997 be respected. The USA had withdrawn the preferential economic treatment to Hong Kong following the imposition of the security law. More sanctions are expected in the coming weeks. It is a measure of the growing Chinese intransigence that instead of heeding the concerns of the democratic world, its spokesmen in Beijing warn of ‘dire consequences’ for the nations sanctioning it for the assault on Hong Kong’s autonomy. In a clear breach of established practice, China’s diplomats take resort to brusque and threatening language to warn the host countries should they criticize the violations of human rights of Uyghur-Muslims in Xinjiang or the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. Not unlike a neighbourhood bully, China is doing all it can to menace the entire global community and earn its opprobrium. Such arrogance can prove its downfall. The world has seen off Stalin, Hitler and other power-drunk dictators. President Xi Jinping ought to be mindful of history, even if he chooses to ignore geography.