Why have Hong Kong demonstrators adopted an old British colonial flag?

Of all the gestures calculated to provoke the Chinese government, protesters in Hong Kong chose one particularly bitter insult this week. The old British colonial flag, one quarter of it occupied by a splendid Union Jack, was draped across the furniture of the city’s legislative council as masked, helmeted activists smashed the place up and sprayed slogans demanding freedom.

One can see why the average Communist Party cadre might not like the flag very much. Apart from the emblem of an imperialist foreign power, it is adorned by a rather charming coat of arms which shows a lion and a dragon, a crown, a fortress and two trading junks in sail on a tranquil sea. Serene and proud it is.

It is not the first time this banner, in use from 1959 until 1997, has appeared at demonstrations since the handover of sovereignty from Britain to China. I noticed it some years ago when local people assembled to complain about crowds of day traders from mainland China who were buying up goods, blocking the pavements and clogging public transport in the humdrum northern suburbs where few expatriates go.