When Xi Jinping arrives for an anticipated Washington meeting on September 24, the discussion should not be limited to tariffs, technology and strategic competition. It should include a simpler question: Can the PRC’s international commitments be trusted?
Hong Kong supplies a concrete test. Beijing accepted a framework in which Hong Kong would retain a high degree of autonomy and fundamental freedoms after 1997. Those promises were not political decoration; they were central to the transition.
Credibility is strategic power
Major powers depend on credibility. Trade agreements, security understandings, investment commitments and diplomatic assurances all assume that yesterday’s promise still matters tomorrow. Treating Hong Kong’s guarantees as expendable weakens that credibility far beyond Hong Kong itself.
Jimmy Lai and the meaning of freedom
The imprisonment of Jimmy Lai crystallizes the issue. His case is about more than one publisher. It asks whether journalism, peaceful advocacy and political disagreement can survive when national-security law reaches into the core of civic life.
The appropriate response is lawful and peaceful: sustained diplomatic pressure, public scrutiny, targeted accountability where legally justified, support for independent media and civil society, and insistence that international commitments be honored.
A powerful country should not fear free speech. A credible country keeps its word.
Sources: Hong Kong Basic Law, Chapter III · UK Government: Sino-British Joint Declaration · Reuters, Sept. 10, 2026