China's Escalating Confrontational Attitude as it Claims Soft Diplomacy

China's intent to bar British Parliamentarians investigating Hong Kong's affairs from entering the former British colony, is explicit evidence of the communists' confrontational attitude toward any scrutiny. And should China be allowed to continue on this confrontational path without firm reprisals and actions a kind, the spread of the communist ideology and its way of business, will soon influence much of the World.

In September, China tried to block the British Foreign Affairs Committee from launching an inquiry into the state of democracy in Hong Kong. The Committee, charged with review of Great Britain's foreign affairs agreements past and present, has already taken testimony as part of its duties to determine whether or not China has violated the 1984 agreement it entered with the United Kingdom(UK) that gave it Hong Kong in 1997. A Chinese foreign affairs committee has charged that the British inquiry is "highly inappropriate...and constitutes interference in China's internal affairs."

As part of the British Committee's work, the Members of Parliament(MPs) planned to visit Hong Kong to look into protests there along with educational, cultural and business links, the BBC reported. However, Committee Chairman Sir Richard Ottoway, reported on Sunday that the Chinese Embassy informed him that he and other MPs attempted to travel to Hong Kong as part of the inquiry, would be refused entry to Hong Kong. Sir Richard categorized China's behavior as "acting overly confrontational". Yet, the British have confirmed that the inquiry will continue.

As Lord Patten, the last British Governor of Hong Kong, testified before the Committee last month, the China-UK 1984 agreement explicitly gave the UK a legitimate interest in Hong Kong's future. Moreover, the British Committee has determined that "...Immigration is a devolved matter to the Hong Kong authorities, and it's not for China..."

So as China bars the former protectors of Hong Kong from entry into their former colony, it underscores China's increasing confrontational attitude to scrutiny while suggesting a soft diplomacy. But China must be judged and responded to a kind to its actions. In denying universal suffrage to Hong Kong along with its assertiveness on the seas of Asia and its human rights record, China displays an intent to influence all others as to its ideology and manner of doing business. China's actions must be rejected.

[This Blog has been repeated on Asia Today.]