I've been talking to Hong Kong's protesters and this is their message for Boris Johnson

No one wants the Brits back in Hong Kong – but the UK does have a significant role to play in this new pro-democracy movement

Last weekend, the zombie government in Hong Kong took little notice of the peaceful, defiant, dignified and polite protests that were emerging.

But as temperatures and tensions rise in the region, political solutions feel increasingly out of reach and international concern is beginning to grow.

Boris Johnson should be prepared to be drawn further into the developing conflict, as protesters demand Western attention. At the Power to the People rally held in Chater Gardens last Friday night, many of the estimated 11,000 attendees were waving union jacks. Stars and stripes could also be spotted, and even colonial era flags were raised by protestors bathing in the neon glow of the towering HSBC building – the symbol of capitalist Hong Kong.

Organisers called for support from the USA and UK – and for Boris Johnson to declare that China had breached the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which mapped out the future of post-handover Hong Kong.

“The UK is responsible for giving the city to an authoritarian state. The UK did not ask the Hong Kong people for their opinion in 1997 before they abandoned us,” says Ellie Wan, one of those attending the rally.

Many protesters I spoke to also called for Boris Johnson to offer holders of British National Overseas (BNO) passports full right of abode in the UK. The BNO passport, held by some 3.4 million people, could be described as a sort of Mickey Mouse British passport. It became available to Hong Kongers from 1985 to assuage their anxiety about the handover to communist China, but it only allows six-month visa-free entry to the UK as a visitor. It was once dubbed the “second-class passport”; but I think that’s generous. It’s not even recognised by the e-passport gates at Heathrow airport.

“China is definitely ruining the contract signed by the UK and China, so if the UK is still responsible for Hong Kong people, the BNO status should allow full rights,” says Ho Wing-tung, a Hong Kong student studying in Taiwan. She and her friend are holding a blue colonial era Hong Kong flag with the union flag displayed in the top left corner.

“This flag is about our unique history and our unique culture,” says Ho.

No one wants the Brits back of course; people like Ho and her friend just want Beijing to respect their identity and their existing rights. It’s not rocket science but compliance-obsessed Beijing just does not seem to get it.

By all accounts, Boris Johnson has quite a lot on his political plate at the moment – and none of it looks very appetising. The notion that the UK prime minister would antagonise an economic behemoth on the eve of Brexit and inflame an already tense situation in Hong Kong in order to support a colonial relic is hardly likely. The idea of Mr. Johnson persuading the anti-immigration contingent of his own party to make special provision for 3.4 million Chinese people to enter the UK legally to fulfil an obscure ethical obligation, dating back to 1984, is even more implausible.

Few here in Hong Kong expect London or Washington to offer them anything more than rhetoric and platitudes, but that’s not the point. Western involvement keeps the issue of Hong Kong democracy and civil rights on the international agenda, so Beijing cannot crush it in private. To everyone’s surprise, even President Trump has made a positive impact on the pro-democracy movement by publicly linking the situation in Hong Kong to the ongoing trade negotiations.

Boris Johnson is hardly a global trouble-shooter, and he certainly isn’t going to resolve a situation as politically complicated as the one in Hong Kong. But a small dose of his rambling rhetoric might just be helpful in keeping Hong Kong in the international spotlight, until a political solution is eventually reached.