January 23, 2024 - 10:00am
Is there a plot to install David Cameron as the next leader of the Conservative Party? Nadine Dorries thinks so — though Cameron himself dismisses the idea (with the condescension dial turned up to 11).
For the moment, we should focus on what he’s been up to as Foreign Secretary. According to the Telegraph, Cameron “wants to visit China as part of his approach of ‘engagement’ with Beijing”. This is unlikely to be a passing whim: planning is almost certainly underway, and the advance notice in the Tory press is just a way of testing the waters. If there isn’t a major backlash from Sinosceptic Conservative MPs, then the trip will go ahead.
Cameron is something of an old China hand. Back in 2013 — when he was still Prime Minister — he led a trade delegation of 131 people including TV executive Sir Peter Bazalgette, businesswoman Karren Brady and former Chelsea left back Graeme Le Saux. Cameron was also PM during Xi Jinping’s state visit in 2015. What a happy time that was — the high point of the so-called “golden era” of Anglo-Chinese relations. A memorable photo op was arranged to mark the occasion — a cheeky pint at The Plough pub near Princes Risborough. The next year the pub was purchased by a Chinese company, which somehow feels symbolic.
If Cameron does jet off to China again, hopefully President Xi won’t be so grand as to not receive the Foreign Secretary in his reduced circumstances. Of course, the chance of a warm welcome will be improved if the Brits choose not to raise awkward issues, such as the plight of Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong democracy campaigner currently held in solitary confinement.
To his credit, Cameron has called on the Hong Kong authorities to release Lai — and Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has stated that his case “is a priority for the Government”. But if that’s sincere, one would expect the Foreign Secretary to use any China trip to speak up for Lai, Andy Li and all the other prisoners of conscience. Whether Cameron does or not will go a long way to clarifying the British Government’s true position.
Thus far, it’s been hard to tell. Shortly after becoming prime minister, Rishi Sunak described the Chinese regime as a “systemic challenge to our values and interests”. On the other hand, he has shown signs of weakness — such as not banning China’s Confucius Institutes in the UK.
Of course, Britain is not at war with China. We’re not even at war-by-proxy, as we are with Russia. Threats and opportunities abound, and it would be wrong to take an absolutist line unless forced to. As Donald Trump has tried to explain, a degree of strategic ambivalence makes sense when dealing with Beijing.
And yet there’s a difference between keeping our options open and credulous appeasement. It’s less than a decade since a British government declared its intention to become China’s “best partner in the West”. What followed was the crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong, the horrors inflicted on the Uyghur minority, the escalating threats against Taiwan and the refusal to come clean on the origins of Covid.
Let’s hope that Cameron as Foreign Secretary has learned from his naivety as prime minister.
Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.
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SubscribeWhat damage is China really going to be able to do to us? We’re miles away. Most on the Right use their treatment of the Uyghurs as a justification for their sinoscepticism but I would say it marries well with our Rwanda plan.
We didn’t leave the EU to follow another state’s foreign policy. We wanted independence. Let’s open up to Chinese goods and investment and enjoy the growth it brings.
Lots of downticks but why not?
Challenges the narrative a little too much.
You haven’t challenged anything, you’ve just made a load of statements.
One would think that they could do quite a lot of damage, considering they have chemical and nuclear weapons, a huge military, and have shown themselves to be more than capable of spying and exerting soft-power.
As much as the Rwanda plan is ill-fated, how is the UK government’s plan to send non-citizens who arrive on our shores to Rwanda comparable to the domestic repression of a religious minority?
Indeed… we also didn’t leave the EU to have the Chinese interfere in our society and economy.
Thanks George, you’ve saved me the trouble.
How are you supposed to challenge a narrative without statements?
I noticed the Lady of Burma didn’t offer no help to the refugees and refused to condemn her countrymen who were rather nasty to them.
That’s exactly where all countries went. At their peril.
Do you not see Chinese expansionism? omw
I do and I want to be part of it. The US is shrinking away from open trade, we opted out of Europe so what’s left?
How about we cosy up to Iran? There are endless possibilities…
Cheap fuel.
Persian people are lovely and they LOVE roses.
“we opted out of Europe so what’s left?”
The Commonwealth! North and South America. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia etc.
One of the problems of having China as a trading partner is that they use trade as a weapon. Australia called for an inquiry into the origin of COVID, so China then cancelled big contracts for barley, wine, seafood and other stuff we exported to them. They intended to cause economic harm as a way to exert political influence.
I have always thought that the Commonwealth should be the basis of a free trade zone of some sort.
Same as we did back in the day. Same as everyone does.
If you go to any scruffy old little town market see where the biggest crowd is,it’s round the stall selling cheap plastic toys and other crappy items made in China,they break before you even get them home but the British public seems to have an inordinate desire to spend what little money they have on cheap crappy bits of plastic. I’ve seen this for myself. That’s how all the Ugandan Asians who arrived here penniless all ended up rich. They took out market stalls and sold that stuff. I mean good for them,thats initiative. The Chinese got wealthy manufacturing that stuff and as they got wealthier so their manufacturing ability and standards rose and rose. They produce the items we want/need at the price were prepared to pay ie the lowest.
China’s top ten exports and not a cheap plastic toy in sight. 🙂
1. Integrated Circuit Manufacturing $177.7B
2. Mobile Phone Manufacturing $162.9B
3. Smart Phone Manufacturing $125.5B
4. Computer Manufacturing $112.9B
5. Computer Peripheral Manufacturing $83.8B
6. Footwear Manufacturing $66.7B
7. Pharmaceutical Raw Material Manufacturing $65.4B
8. Steel Rolling $59.3B
9. Building Construction $56.7B
10.Software Development $56.0B
https://www.ibisworld.com/china/industry-trends/biggest-exporting-industries/
Does the sand get stuck in your beak Mr/Mrs/M Reader?
For twenty three years China has been engaged in the most blatant mercantilist currency manipulation ever practiced in order to destroy our industry and buy up our assets on the cheap and you’re asking ‘what damage can they do’? You need to venture beyond the M25 and take a look around.
Even outside of the M25 I think I could see the flaws in that one.
Which are?
And seeing as most people don’t care so long as they can get that current object of desire at a knockdown price,it’s easy for em.
What damage? As soon as Labour has electrified our energy system, China can stop supplying solar panels, wind turbines, EV batteries and all the minerals needed to make batteries here.
Or they could invade Taiwan and cut off supplies of 90% of the world’s silicon chips.
I’m not saying they will but they could, and would, if they considered it to be in their own interests. So, what damage? That damage.
Thatd show us wouldn’t it.
How about focussing on what he did to Libya and Syria? As for ‘activists’ in solitary confinement – we haven’t a leg to stand on what with Julian Assange currently languishing in Belmarsh.
There are a number of drivers for Sunak and Cameron’s craven approach to China. Naivety is not one of them.
Cameron Just wants to be seen and noticed.
Cameron Just wants to be seen and noticed (and paid).
I suspect he is rather jealous of Tony Blair.
The Chinese leadership called Osborne and Cameron “the posh boys”. It wasn’t intended as a compliment.
I remember just after The Berlin Wall came down and there was huge enthusiasm in East Germany and Russia for now they could have Western Stuff only like the philosopher Munroe said,”after you get what you want you don’t want it”,so then they all got so horrified by the worst gangster form of capitalism they got that most of them ended up saying ,” it was better in the old days”.so Cameron and Clinton and all them crew started going to China,like one down,one to go,they were pretending they just wanted to be friends but really they were mouth agape at the size of the potential market,for our cars,our food produce,our manufactures such as we still had. All those Chinese people will want a car. They’ll all want a fridge. And they do. But them Chinese is clever and cunning. They never bought a bar off us. Instead they took a look,started manufacturing it all better and cheaper than us and ended up selling all that stuff to US. In fact to USA. Talk about the biter bit.
In his book “Enlightenment Now, The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress”, Steven Pinker quotes Johan Norberg:
“The Chinese people today can live almost however they like, buy a home, choose an education, pick a job, start a business, belong to a church, (as long as they are Buddhists, Taoist, Muslims, Catholics or Protestants), dress as they like, marry whom the like, be openly gay without ending up in a labour camp, travel abroad freely and even criticise aspects of the Party’s policies, (though not its right to rule unopposed). Even ‘not Free’ is not what it used to be.”
Having lived over nine years in the country since 2002 I tend to agree with Johan Norberg.
Johan Norberg is a Swedish author and historian of ideas, devoted to promoting economic globalization and what he describes as classical liberal positions. He is arguably most known as the author of “In Defense of Global Capitalism and Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future”.
If you look at the progress that’s been made in China since the ‘Opening up Policy’ announced by Deng Xiaoping in December 1978, to embrace capitalism and open the door to foreign businesses that wanted to set up in China, here’s the World Bank – the international voice of capitalism:
“Since China began to open up and reform its economy in 1978, GDP growth has averaged almost 9 percent a year, and more than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty. There have also been significant improvements in access to health, education, and other services over the same period.
China is now an upper-middle-income country. Although China has eradicated extreme poverty, a significant number of people remain vulnerable, with incomes below a threshold more typically used to define poverty in upper-middle income countries.”
Last Updated: Apr 20, 2023
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview