To many observers, it can seem as if China is picking fights with almost everyone. Its opponents are not only in Asia; a tussle with the UK is escalating, ties with the EU are souring, relations with Canada are at “freezing point” and a visceral US-China rivalry is undermining nearly four decades of bilateral engagement.

The specific sources of such tensions are numerous. But most are being magnified by the issue of Hong Kong, upon which Beijing imposed its authoritarian will this month with a national security law that removes the “high degree” of legal and political autonomy promised to the territory on its handover to China from the UK in 1997.