China Ridicules Foreign Secretary Hunt and the Dying British Empire

July 5, 2019 (EIRNS)—The lead editorial today in the Global Times is a devastating ridicule of U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s threats against China over the situation in Hong Kong. But more importantly, it hits the British Empire where it hurts.

Hunt has wildly claimed that China is responsible for the recent chaos in Hong Kong, where foreign-funded anarchists occupied and trashed the Legislative Yuan, hanging the former colonial flag (with the Union Jack) on the dais. Hunt threatened “serious consequences” against China, whose actions allegedly violated the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and for somehow undermining democracy in Hong Kong.

“Almost all analysts believe Hunt is putting on an air,” the editorial states. “Nobody believes the U.K. will send its only aircraft carrier to China’s coast. Nor would anyone believe the U.K. will punish Beijing at the cost of hurting trade with China. The U.K. has been dwarfed by China in military and trade.”

It states that if the U.K. expels diplomats, as it did with Russia, the rest of Europe will ignore them, and “the U.K. will only isolate itself.”

Hunt, the daily explains, is frantically trying to beat Boris Johnson in the Tory selection of the new Prime Minister to replace Theresa May, writing: “In charge of diplomacy, Hunt believes the Hong Kong issue is a chance that dropped into his and the U.K.’s lap. But this is not the 19th century when the Opium War broke out. The U.K. has gone past its prime.”

They go on: “Hunt obviously believes that the British people can be manipulated like a flock of sheep,” and “Hunt is obviously outwardly strong and inwardly weak. Even the British people think his performance is amusing.”

They consider the irony that, “In a few short years, one minute the U.K. calls its relations with China the ‘Golden Era,’ and the next minute it warns China of ‘serious consequences.’ Under such circumstances, we should not be too serious when dealing with the U.K.”