Jim O'Neill, Columnist

U.K. Can't Complain About Hong Kong

Once the U.K. gave Hong Kong back to China, it lost its standing to complain, unless China is breaking its promises.

September 10, 2014 at 10:03 PM UTC

Jim O'Neill worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. from 1995 until 2013, serving most recently as chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and as the firm's chief economist from 2001 to 2011. Before joining Goldman Sachs, he was head of global research at Swiss Bank Corp. O'Neill is the creator of the BRIC acronym, which was derived from his thesis that Brazil, Russia, India and China would dominate growth in emerging markets. He is a member of the boards of the Brussels-based policy-research centers Itinera Institute and Bruegel. He earned a degree in economics from Sheffield University in 1978 and a doctorate from the University of Surrey in 1982. He lives in London.

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In recent weeks, Hong Kong has seen street protests over Beijing's role in the city's politics. Some prominent overseas commentators, especially from the U.K., have begun to complain that China is failing to honor the promises it made in 1984, when the two countries agreed that Hong Kong would be handed back to the mainland.

The letter of those commitments is something for international lawyers to debate. Meanwhile, I see a danger in griping about China's lack of good faith. This sits a bit too comfortably with the idea, popular in the U.S. and Europe, that China will fail, and deserve to fail, unless it makes itself over in the West's image. According to this view, China should take Hong Kong as it once was as the model for its own political and economic development.