The national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong was the straw that broke the camel's back on the London side. Britain aligns itself with its American ally and hardens its position vis-à-vis China. From now on, UK courts will no longer respond to international arrest warrants issued by Hong Kong.

Nothing has gone well between Great Britain and China since the adoption on June 30 by the Communist Parliament of a law which places de facto Hong Kong under the supervision of the Beijing security organs. London yesterday took a new retaliatory measure suspending the extradition treaty signed with its former colony.

Yes, it is a decision with immediate effect and for an indefinite period. So practically, this means that the British courts will no longer respond to the international arrest warrants issued by Hong Kong because its judicial system, which until now was completely independent from that of Beijing, has now lost all autonomy.

Today, there is a very real risk that China will use Hong Kong judges to set up criminal proceedings against political opponents who have taken refuge abroad, to obtain their extradition and then transfer them to the communist prison system, all thanks to the new law on national security. This would be an extremely serious violation of international law, but also of the agreements made between London and Beijing at the time of the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. They predicted that the former British colony would keep its democratic system, with justice independent, under the status of special administrative region. This is what was summed up at the time by this phrase from Deng Xiao Ping: "one country, two systems".

It ended up working pretty well for about 20 years.

Yes, until 2019, it was the big honeymoon between London and Beijing, with strong economic cooperation that benefited China, since Hong Kong has become one of the world's main financial centers, but also Britain. Chinese companies have invested around 50 billion euros there, double what Germany received and triple from France or Italy. 

But in a relationship, money is not everything. And finally this marriage of interests did not resist the geopolitical logic, and especially not the ambitions of President Xi Jinping to impose China as the first world power, with its communist system and territorial claims which are now systematically supported by the threat to use force. This is the case in Hong Kong, but also in Taiwan, which lives under constant military pressure. Or more recently in the foothills of the Himalayas where Chinese troops have revived clashes with India.

This is also the case around the disputed islets in Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, Japan ... That is still a lot for a country often presented as not at all expansionist . So much so that the British also announced the dispatch of an aircraft carrier to the China Sea for joint maneuvers with the US Navy. The honeymoon is truly over.