When I was a Tory MP and our Parliamentary committee visited Beijing in 2018, we were given two extraordinary warnings.
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we → visit → warnings
First, that every room in the British embassy was bugged.
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room → bug → embassy
Second, that a key part of our diplomacy was to ‘reassure’ China that Britain posed no threat.
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Britain → reassure → threat
I had to pinch myself.
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I → have → myself
Here was a Communist superpower building a military machine, conducting brazen espionage on British soil and pursuing global domination of the industries on which the West depends.
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West → build → which
Meanwhile, Britain was shrinking its Royal Navy and our diplomats appeared to be engaged in Operation Kowtow.
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diplomats → shrink → Kowtow
Since then, successive governments have only continued down this ruinous path.
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governments → continue → path
This week, Parliament’s Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee delivered a damning verdict on Britain’s relationship with Beijing.
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Committee → deliver → Beijing
Andy Burnham met China's Consul General Tang Rui at the Consulate General in April to discuss expanding practical cooperation between China and Manchester
Despite its waffly name, the committee produced – unusually, by Parliament’s standards – a punchy report.
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committee → meet → report
It repeats what many of us have been saying for years: Britain has no coherent China strategy, no consistency and no clear idea where to draw the line.
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Britain → repeat → line
Labour was ‘making up its China policy as it goes along’, said chairman Liam Byrne, who is a cut above most deeply uninspiring Labour MPs.
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who → make → MPs
Decision-making on China – the single greatest strategic threat facing our nation – was marked by ‘reactivity, inconsistency, and opacity’.
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making → face → reactivity
Coming from a Labour-dominated committee, that’s quite an indictment.
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that → come → committee
On China, our political classes seem trapped in a perpetual Groundhog Day.
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classes → seem → Day
And round we go again.
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we → go → ?
Almost every expert group now recognises our economic dependency on China as a critical danger to the UK: they warn that through weakness, temerity and poor planning, we’ll allow Beijing to so dominate our supply chains and build up such influence here our political leaders will have no choice but to acquiesce to their demands.
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leaders → recognise → demands
We will become a satrap of a Communist superpower.
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We → become → superpower
It does not have to be this way.
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It → have → ?
Yet the miserable irony is that Labour’s own economic policies are making Britain increasingly vulnerable to that very dependency.
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Britain → make → dependency
A statement in this week's parliamentary report reads: 'Low-cost, increasingly high-quality Chinese imports are a boon to UK consumers at a time when household incomes are squeezed' (Pictured: Chinese owned MG cars line up at Bristol Port )
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cars → read → Port
The true reasons for our stagnation stare us in the face: the highest peacetime taxation in our history, crippling energy costs and a socialist Government that sees employers less as engines of prosperity than as convenient targets for ministers desperate to appease the trade unions.
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that → stare → unions
And unsustainable and damaging levels of low-skilled immigration, alongside hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, are only adding to the burden.
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levels → skille → burden
But Labour politicians don’t want to talk about that.
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politicians → want → that
Instead, they go cap in hand to China, hoping Beijing will somehow rescue Britain economically from the consequences of its own suicidally destructive policies.
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Beijing → go → policies
If anything, I would argue this week’s Parliamentary report does not go far enough.
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report → argue → ?
Take this statement: ‘Low-cost, increasingly high-quality Chinese imports are a boon to UK consumers at a time when household incomes are squeezed.’
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incomes → take → time
Let me translate: China has deliberately exploited the rules of global trade to undercut our industries, drive our firms out of business and flood our markets with cheap imports.
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China → let → imports
The committee argues we should negotiate better market access and pursue fair trade.
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we → argue → trade
China does not want free trade, but trade dominance over us.
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China → want → us
Protesters expressed their views against plans to open a new Chinese mega-embassy outside the Royal Mint Court in January
Beijing’s economic model is built around strengthening its own industries, reducing dependence on foreign suppliers and expanding its influence abroad.
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model → express → influence
The highly-respected IPAC – the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a coalition of more than 320 parliamentarians globally – recently produced a study, which is more honest than the one the trade committee produced.
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committee → respect → one
China, under the Communist Party, is and will remain a threat to Britain economically and politically, it said.
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it → remain → Britain
It offers limited opportunities for trade while exposing us to enormous strategic risks.
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It → offer → risks
IPAC, led by former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith MP, is spot on.
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IPAC → lead → Smith
It is interested in using economics as a weapon: stripping power from the West and accumulating in Beijing.
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It → use → Beijing
China has grown rich through the theft of intellectual property and the aggressive exploitation of global trading rules to undercut Western firms.
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China → grow → firms
It does not play by the same rules, and it has no intention of doing so.
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it → play → intention
Yet, we still fail to take even the most basic steps to protect ourselves.
Take Net Zero.
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we → fail → Net
In our rush to decarbonise, we have become increasingly reliant on Chinese solar technology, even though researchers have uncovered serious evidence of forced labour involving Uyghurs in parts of the industry’s supply chains.
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researchers → decarbonise → chains
This is an utterly absurd arrangement: our zealotry forces up energy costs and either destroys business, or drives them away from our shores.
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zealotry → force → shores
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
