On Friday 18 October Dr Andreas Fulda joined an academic roundtable hosted by Nic Hailey, Director of the FCO Hong Kong Task Force. He shared his analysis of the deteriorating situation in Hong Kong. Andreas also provided ten policy recommendations for the British government.
His policy advice was based on 547 online recommendations which he had solicited via social media from primarily Hong Kong-based Twitter users prior to the roundtable.
In order to address the crisis in Hong Kong Andreas urges the British government to take the following actions:
(1) Make a clear and unequivocal statement that China has contravened the Sino-British Joint Declaration from 1984 and that, as such, it is in breach of international law.
(2) Provide funding for UK-based TV, print, and online media outlets as well as primary, secondary, high schools, further and higher education institutions aimed at increasing media literacy among the population to counter disinformation campaigns by autocratic foreign governments (...)
(3) Ensure the health and well-being of Hong Kong students studying at British universities. This can be achieved by strengthening the organisational autonomy of British Higher Education institutions (...)
(4) Introduce financial, travel and political sanctions against those responsible for the repression in Hong Kong. This objective can be achieved by British parliamentarians enacting a British version of the Global Magnitsky Act as well as a British version of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.
(5) Adopt a policy not to deny visas to persons who were arrested, detained or convicted in the course of the democratic movement in Hong Kong.
(6) Accept submissions from credible NGOs in Hong Kong before each 6-month Report of Hong Kong, and submit the Report to Parliament for debate.
(7) Insert human-rights related clauses in trade deals with Hong Kong and China.
(8) Prohibit the sale of UK-manufactured lethal and so-called 'non-lethal' weapons as well as dual use technology to mainland China and Hong Kong.
(9) Provide greater protection to BN(O) and review their rights. This may include giving full British citizenship to BN(O); giving a second citizenship in other Commonwealth countries; granting working visas to BN(O); creating a new tier of visa to BN(O) to settle in the UK; or shortening the residency requirement to obtain full British Citizenship in UK etc.
(10) Seek a transatlantic partnership with the US administration to counter Chinese Communist Party-led influence and interference operations abroad. Regardless of the outcome of the Brexit process, the UK should also maintain a close security relationship with the European Union to coordinate active measures to counter CCP-led influence and interference operations in the UK and mainland Europe.
View a full version of his ten policy recommendations.
It is worth pointing out that Andreas' initial tweet—which he had posted on Twitter just seven hours prior to the Friday roundtable meeting—led to a remarkable online response by mostly Hong Kong-based Twitter users.
His four tweets related to the FCO academic roundtable were commented on 1,374 times / retweeted 4,562 times / received 7,120 likes / and led to 229,221 impressions.
Such extensive online engagement in a crucial foreign policy debate is indicative of the high expectations among Hong Kongers towards the British government.
Image: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's main building in Whitehall. Image licence: Open Government Licence v2.0.
Posted on Tuesday 22nd October 2019