In 1984, the U.K. and China issued the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong as part of the handover of the crown colony to China.  In that agreement, China guaranteed certain rights for Hong Kong for 50 years.  But now it has changed its mind.

L Gordon Crovitz reports in the Wall Street Journal:

China declared “void” the treaty it signed to get possession of Hong Kong. That happened last month, when Beijing barred members of the British Parliament from entering Hong Kong. Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee had planned a visit to monitor the 1984 pact, the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong.

China’s deputy ambassador to Britain, Ni Jian, told the committee’s chairman, Richard Ottaway, that the Joint Declaration “is now void and only covered the period from the signing in 1984 until the handover in 1997.”

The United States just concluded an agreement with China on reducing carbon emissions, requiring the U.S. to take action now while China only agrees to have its emissions peak in 2030 or thereabouts.  But even that lopsided agreement could obviously be “void” whenever China decides it is in its interest.

Never forget what New York Times columnist Tom Friedman said about China on Meet the Press:

…I have fantasized—don't get me wrong—but that what if we could just be China for a day? I mean, just, just, just one day. You know, I mean, where we could actually, you know, authorize the right solutions, and I do think there is a sense of that, on, on everything from the economy to environment.