The Sunday Express, April 23, Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP
When I heard about the recent Express/Guardian interview with the Foreign Secretary setting out government policy, I was reminded that he is a fan of Yes Minister which at first made me assume this was a deliberate parody. After all, every convoluted sentence sounded as though the Yes Minister scriptwriters were back but now in charge of government policy. When asked about whether China posed a threat to us, the UK position is apparently ‘convoluted.’
So are they competition? Are they a threat? Are they a challenge? Are they an opportunity? Are they a this or are they a that?….we don’t distil any other bilateral relationship into one word….
And not even that easily into one phrase or one sentence. But China’s big, it’s influential, it’s important.’
Actually, I do not believe it is hard to distil our relationships down to one word. After all, we describe the USA as an ally, as are the others in NATO. They are clearly not threats.
Sadly, so much of the government’s position on China now stems from a desire not to upset China if at all possible.
Our enormous economic dependence on China that has flowed through the Universities and other institutions has, it appears, left government policy in a kind of project Kow-Tow.
Remember how Chinese diplomats in Manchester beat up a peaceful democracy campaigner in a blatant abuse of their diplomatic status? So much of this was videoed and the Consul General publicly admitted it.
Click here to read the piece in full.