If we do intervene,what should we do?
You can decide if you think we should intervene,but if we do then how should we help?
There are a number of things we could do such as vote for a resolution in the UN against China,try to help the peaceful protests in Hong Kong or make sure the protests stay peaceful.
If Britain votes for a resolution in the United Nations then China might want to change their behavior so that the rest of the world will not feel as if they are doing bad things . In contrast, because China is so powerful, they might not care about the vote and just carry on as they are doing.
Trying to help the peaceful protests could lead to China taking action against us, which means that this might not be such a good idea. But we could tell the protesters that we agree with them and urge them to stay peaceful.
You can decide!
Comments (28)
15 Oct 2019
Hi courageous_fern! I have given you a star and made your post an Editor's pick. This is because you've asked a new and interesting question which shows great curiosity and one that I think other BNC members will enjoy sharing their opinions on. Well done!
15 Oct 2019
Hi courageous_fern , this is is an amazing post and I think we should protect the people in Hong Kong because the police are hurting them and potentially killing them!!!!!
15 Oct 2019
We should help Hong Kong because we where the ones who placed the rule in the first place and that rule is a law and if China are breaking that law we should stop them because Hong Kong still has there own rights and freedom until 2047
15 Oct 2019
I agree with you, if we do help then it is a risk. But if we ask China after telling the UN they would definetely stop doing what they are doing. I think this because the UN organisation is more powerful than any country as it is international and is the whole world essentially. If China don't stop, then the United Nations should stop them because it deals with Humanitarian problems and this is definetely a problem for the people in Hong Kong who, guess what, are humans as well. I do think it will do us good to stop the peaceful protests so Hong Kong can calm down resulting in China calming down and being able to negogiate with. Still, I do think that Hong Kong protesters won't be easy or they might be impossible to calm down so they might not fullfil their side of the UK's idea to stop it. In short, I agree with this post. I think it has been well researched and explains lots of points very clearly.
Could you tell us a bit more about the role of the UN, succinct_leaves? What evidence do you have that it is more powerful than any country?
16 Oct 2019
hello everyone i think we do both because we need freedom but china is hurting them and we need to stay and if we fight we might get injured
16 Oct 2019
i personally think we should,what is your opinion
16 Oct 2019
If we do help then its a risk.But if we ask china to tell the UN! they might stop doing what they are doing now
I agree because Hong Kong have faced alot ever since britian gave Hong Kong back to china
That's a good point, loyal_turtle. Can you tell us why the UN might have this power?
16 Oct 2019
I think we should not risk helping Hong Kong because it might cause 1.world war 3 2.we don't want our people dying 3.it could make it worse
16 Oct 2019
I think Hong Kong are in an extremely difficult situation currently and we were the ones who were at leave in the first place. For that reason, even though, technically, we are not inclined to help I do believe that whether or not it is actually our role, we should help out because they are in a massive crisis as portrayed by the protestors. However, the question is what would we do? A war would be ludicrous in my view because it would highly effect many innocent citizens and China does have the biggest army in the world. Because of this, I am very sceptical about what Britain should do.
Agreeing with inspiring_penguin, I think we should intervene but still keep our distance from this situation. Hong Kong are in a intractable situation and we are partly to blame as we have left this agreement that we have created with China that should last until 2047.Even though we are not compelled to take part in rebuilding what was such a peaceful country, we should interfere with this problem as the Chinese government have caused so many riots. Whether our position is rightful to help fight till they reach justice, we can see that this crisis will continue as portrayed by these people who protest for their democracy they have lived with for roughly 150 years. Around 119,990 people who were born in Hong Kong now live in Britain due to the effects of this democratical crisis. However, the question we should be contemplating is whether we as a person or a society want to help. In my view having a war over this particular problem would be absurd and would affect many of the harmless citizens. We would lose most if our trade as in 2016 Britain imported £42.6 billion worth of goods from China.
16 Oct 2019
If we do intervene we should maybe try to help get Hong Kong's political rights and objections to come back.These could be face masks or helping Hong Kong befriending China.Also China may be under estimating Britain's and Hong Kong's intellegence combined.
16 Oct 2019
By the way I just wanted to say that this is an incredible post and I know did probably take a long time to think about
16 Oct 2019
Hong Kong are in a tough position to negotiate and adjust with China to help each other's decisions.
18 Oct 2019
I believe that there are several options that the UK could take when thinking about how to intervene in Hong Kong.
1. Firstly, in my opinion, it is the UK’s responsibility to bring up the situation with the UN. The United Nations are an organisation comprised of lots of different countries that are responsible for maintaining international peace and security. China have broken the agreement that was made when Britain gave Hong Kong back to them, which said that Hong Kong would be able to keep their own laws and freedoms until 2048. As this promise has been broken, it is essential that the UN take action. The UN has more power than the UK on its own, therefore China and Hong Kong are more likely to listen.
2. Alternatively, as stated in Man-Kei Tam’s interview with the BNC, our government could stop the supply of crowd control equipment, such as rubber bullets and tear gas, to Hong Kong. Currently, this equipment is being used by police to control protestors but it is hurting a lot of people and causing more violent than it solves. Therefore, we should stop supplying it until we are sure it will be used more effectively.
3. Another possibility is to introduce sanctions (or punishments) for Hong Kong officials living in the UK. These sanctions could be money-related or could even go as far as to remove UK citizenship. This would almost certainly be enough to make the Chinese and Hong Kong governments stop and listen.
4. Finally, the UK government could explore the possibility of Britain regaining control of Hong Kong. China has broken its side of the agreement, so if Hong Kong wanted it surely there is nothing to stop us taking it back so that the people can regain their rights and freedoms.
Well done for using the evidence from Man-Kei Tam! Is there an order to these - do you think 1 is the best and all the way down to 4 as a last resort?
In my opinion, I disagree with points one; if it was Britain's responsibility, then we would start another war. Hong Kong was taken over by the British forces after the defeat of China in the Opium war of 1842. On July 1997, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of China. Also, in 1997 China agreed to a fifty year guarantee of autonomy that they are already abusing. If England would intervene with their military, then we would start a global war.
Secondly, if we were to introduce sanctions, millions of citizens here in England would be affected and if Hong Kong would reply with the same thing, HSBC, Melli Bank and The Bank Of East Asia LTD have headquarters here but are Hong Kong's companies therefore risking a lot.
Personally, the UK should not intervene and resolve their own issues first like BREXIT.
18 Oct 2019
I think we shouldn't help Hong Kong becouse it might cause a war
I don't agree with what you said, because we will think about the innocent people in Hong Kong and what is their fault in the outbreak of war because we don't always punish everyone and punish the wrongdoers (we must always think of the right side).
18 Oct 2019
Also if we do try to help Hong kong we should amedently evacuate the situation
19 Oct 2019
I think that we should help Hong Kong because China is being mean to them. also potentially killing Hong Kong.
22 Oct 2019
HongKongers have been going through a lot because the UK handed HongKong back to China also people of HongKong are know asking China’s army for help which I find very confusing but I also agree because HongKongers are being sent to jail for violently protesting.
22 Oct 2019
if you interfere you should make another deal about the to systems and one country
04 Dec 2019
I strongly believe that we should intervene in the Hong Kong Crisis and support the Hong Kongese people. Having looked at both sides of the argument and using all four skills at school, I agree with the other people with the same opinion as me. Reply to me if you agree!
Hong Kong in crisis
For
I think we should intervene because we cant just sit down and watch all these terrible things happen to Hong Kong, for example, china chose the leader of Hong Kong (Carrie Lam) so this means that China have full power over Hong Kong. Also we signed the Sino British Joint Declaration which meant that we would let China take back Hong Kong after China lost a series of wars to us and that they would live under state capitalism (rather than in a democracy).
Against
I don't think we should intervene because we could lose being great great friends with such a powerful country and lose trades with them ( lots of stuff you buy is from China, check the labels if you don't believe me). Also,
09 Dec 2019
sorry this is a continuation of my last comment. booksellers in Hong Kong have been selling books that the Chinese government didn't like and have been put on trials in china and then, if found guilty, have been jailed.
My opinion
I personaly, having considered both sides of the argument, think that we should not intervene because we don't want another World War so instead of intervening we could wright a letter to our local MPs stating what we want them to speak out about (like my school has done). If you agree with me please reply.
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