What China wants from Britain

What are we to do about China? To turn a phrase beloved by the Chinese Communist party (CCP) on its head, Beijing is increasingly ‘interfering in our internal affairs’. Yet if you hoped to answer that question by reading the recent integrated review of defence and foreign policy, the most you would find is that China is a ‘systemic competitor’. But recognition is not a strategy; at best, the review indulged in ambiguity, or perhaps obfuscation.

The Prime Minister wants good relations with China. Who doesn’t? Certainly, a new Cold War would be disastrous, for us and for the CCP. But if we do not set clear boundaries, we risk being manoeuvred into a state where ‘Chinese communism has the superior position over Western capitalism’, as Xi Jinping himself prescribed in his first policy speech to the Politburo in 2013. China’s superior position means not just economic dependency, but our norms and values taking second place to those of the party.