Rather than being China's 'best partner,' the U.K. might be China's only friend left in the West and even that friendship is under threat.
Despite the global focus on coronavirus, a China Research Group has been set up by Conservative MPs from all wings of the party, examining the"rise of China." While it says it's not anti-China, it would explore the country's economic aims around the world.
Human rights organization Amnesty International says that enforced disappearances and secret detention are widespread in China, media is heavily censored, mass surveillance is universal and some religious leaders have been jailed for"endangering state security." "The decision up to now, including the Huawei decision, has always been that the economic links outweigh the security considerations. I think what coronavirus brings into sharp focus is that, in extremis, all the things we've been worried about in terms of China's basic desire only to consider its own interests and not to regard itself as a cooperative global player, has economic implications as well as security implications.
"There has been quite a substantial involvement from Huawei on the telephone infrastructure side with British Telecom for years," Malcolm Rifkind, former Conservative foreign secretary, tells"We already have what's called a cell operating, manned by intelligence people answerable to the British government, which monitors the way in which the Huawei involvement with British Telecom has operated. And so far that has been, broadly speaking, reassuring.
The U.K. accounts for around 2.5 percent of Chinese exports, worth around $62 billion , according to the International Monetary Fund. This compares to around $420 billion billion of exports to the U.S., its biggest trading partner. Going the other way, around 3.5 percent of British exports go to China, worth about $28 billion.
"People want clear boundaries and to be told that China is the 'enemy,' China is 'evil,' and if that's what you want, fair enough. If that's the case, say to those who lose their jobs and lose their livelihoods in Britain that it is worth the price to do that.
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