With the UK opening its doors to three million Hong Kong residents and China threatening serious retaliation for what it sees as an intrusion into its domestic affairs, the Hong Kong crisis is becoming a real-time test of diplomacy in a pandemic-distracted world. So what does this drama tell us about China's emerging place in the new world order? And what light does it throw on the very particular problems posed, post-Brexit, for the British government's efforts to roll out a new and optimistic foreign policy under the banner of "Global Britain"? First off, was this crisis inevitable? Things might have been so very different. For well over two decades, most policy-makers in the West hoped that China's rise would unfold in a very specific way. China, it was said, would become a "responsible stakeholder" in the international community. In other words, it would abide by international agreements and norms, because, as part of the system, it benefited from them as much as anyone else. Maybe in that kind of world, the deal entered into between the British and Chinese governments over Hong Kong's future would have survived. But things did not turn out like that. China's rise was rapid and single-minded. It became a military superpower, at least in its own region, one that close to home, even the mighty United States would struggle to confront. But its rise also came about at a time when the West in general and the United States in particular was distracted. There was the war on terrorism and the crisis in Syria. Europe had the distraction of Brexit. And then there was the Trump administration in the United States which has hardly been consistent on China policy - indeed, it has lacked a strategic sense in foreign policy across the board. China's rise over the past five years has coincided not just with a relative decline in Washington's standing abroad, but an absolute decline, plunging Washington's alliance systems in Asia, Europe and the Middle East into crisis. While problems between the West and China grew in number, there was no overall response that saw these as elements - trade tensions, technological rivalries, strategic issues and so on - as part of a bigger "China problem" that required a concerted and co-ordinated response. This was the world on the brink of the Covid-19 crisis; a drama that originated in China and which initially caused some serious problems for Beijing, but one which it was clearly determined to turn to its advantage. It is no accident then that a more strident nationalist tone in Chinese policy has been the result, ranging from tensions with the US and Australia, Sino-Indian rivalry on their common frontier, and to cap it all, China's decision to overturn the fundamentals of its deal with the UK over Hong Kong. Indeed the Covid-19 crisis gave Beijing the opportunity to bring the Hong Kong crisis to a head. However long this pandemic lasts, one consequence is clear - the trajectory of Beijing's more assertive policy is unlikely to change unless real and concerted pressure is brought to bear. And for all the condemnation of China's attitude towards the liberties of the people of Hong Kong, it is hard to see this happening.