Bob Seely: ‘Mr Bean’s trip to China’ ignored a vital rule – sell, but don’t sell us out
Every delay has consequences.
Dr Robert Seely MBE is author of ‘The New Total War’, ConservativeHome foreign affairs columnist and a former Conservative MP.
When I look at the decline of the Foreign Office and Whitehall as well as the parochialisation of our political leadership over the past two decades – China will stand as a testament to our leader’s inability to grasp new ideas and great new trends.
Prime Minister Kier Starmer’s visit to China (and Japan) was not a success.
Appearing more Mr Bean than Mr Statesman, he came back with little and was only allowed to visit once he had agreed to the planned Chinese embassy in London, sitting adjacent to highly sensitive cables. Whilst there, he was gently demeaned in a number of different ways, described by Luke de Pulford from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.
Starmer continues a depressing tradition. For years our nation’s decision-makers – along with many others in Europe – has failed to see what China is and where the true dangers are. We have no coherent attitude of outlook.
There is no pot of gold at the end of the Chinese economic rainbow. There is no gain in turning a blind eye to its modern slavery or the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) creation of an AI-driven police state, because there is no economic El Dorado. It is a myth peddled by our Treasury and which has been slavishly followed by managerialist politicians.
First, China’s Made in China 2025 policy is designed to wean itself of imports. Prior to Covid, Chinese investment in the UK represents just 0.2 per cent of foreign investment anyway, and that is overwhelmingly focused on high technology, somewhere frankly we should not be welcoming the CCP. Third, jobs created and maintained by Chinese investment amounted to just 3,000 a year, whilst our exports made up just 3.3 per cent of our total. Few firms make durable profits. Their Intellectual Property is taken. Contracts are not enforced. There is a reason we sell less to China than to Ireland or Holland.
By all means, sell to China is you want, but they are far more interested in selling to us. Chinese exports to us were £67 billion. Our imports to them were less than half that.
The reality is that China doesn’t want open and free trade. It wants to use its economic export power to create dependency. It does that by dominating technologies and supply chains. This is not a conspiracy theory, it’s fact, just some of us don’t want to listen. This is trade and economics as a form of warfare.
Here’s China’s dictator Xi Jinping speaking in April 2020: China will “aim to form a ‘counterattack and deterrence’ against other countries by fostering killer technologies and strengthening the global supply chain’s dependence on China.”
Elsewhere, the Chinese Communist Party has made clear that Western …
Every delay has consequences.
Dr Robert Seely MBE is author of ‘The New Total War’, ConservativeHome foreign affairs columnist and a former Conservative MP.
When I look at the decline of the Foreign Office and Whitehall as well as the parochialisation of our political leadership over the past two decades – China will stand as a testament to our leader’s inability to grasp new ideas and great new trends.
Prime Minister Kier Starmer’s visit to China (and Japan) was not a success.
Appearing more Mr Bean than Mr Statesman, he came back with little and was only allowed to visit once he had agreed to the planned Chinese embassy in London, sitting adjacent to highly sensitive cables. Whilst there, he was gently demeaned in a number of different ways, described by Luke de Pulford from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.
Starmer continues a depressing tradition. For years our nation’s decision-makers – along with many others in Europe – has failed to see what China is and where the true dangers are. We have no coherent attitude of outlook.
There is no pot of gold at the end of the Chinese economic rainbow. There is no gain in turning a blind eye to its modern slavery or the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) creation of an AI-driven police state, because there is no economic El Dorado. It is a myth peddled by our Treasury and which has been slavishly followed by managerialist politicians.
First, China’s Made in China 2025 policy is designed to wean itself of imports. Prior to Covid, Chinese investment in the UK represents just 0.2 per cent of foreign investment anyway, and that is overwhelmingly focused on high technology, somewhere frankly we should not be welcoming the CCP. Third, jobs created and maintained by Chinese investment amounted to just 3,000 a year, whilst our exports made up just 3.3 per cent of our total. Few firms make durable profits. Their Intellectual Property is taken. Contracts are not enforced. There is a reason we sell less to China than to Ireland or Holland.
By all means, sell to China is you want, but they are far more interested in selling to us. Chinese exports to us were £67 billion. Our imports to them were less than half that.
The reality is that China doesn’t want open and free trade. It wants to use its economic export power to create dependency. It does that by dominating technologies and supply chains. This is not a conspiracy theory, it’s fact, just some of us don’t want to listen. This is trade and economics as a form of warfare.
Here’s China’s dictator Xi Jinping speaking in April 2020: China will “aim to form a ‘counterattack and deterrence’ against other countries by fostering killer technologies and strengthening the global supply chain’s dependence on China.”
Elsewhere, the Chinese Communist Party has made clear that Western …
Bob Seely: ‘Mr Bean’s trip to China’ ignored a vital rule – sell, but don’t sell us out
Every delay has consequences.
Dr Robert Seely MBE is author of ‘The New Total War’, ConservativeHome foreign affairs columnist and a former Conservative MP.
When I look at the decline of the Foreign Office and Whitehall as well as the parochialisation of our political leadership over the past two decades – China will stand as a testament to our leader’s inability to grasp new ideas and great new trends.
Prime Minister Kier Starmer’s visit to China (and Japan) was not a success.
Appearing more Mr Bean than Mr Statesman, he came back with little and was only allowed to visit once he had agreed to the planned Chinese embassy in London, sitting adjacent to highly sensitive cables. Whilst there, he was gently demeaned in a number of different ways, described by Luke de Pulford from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.
Starmer continues a depressing tradition. For years our nation’s decision-makers – along with many others in Europe – has failed to see what China is and where the true dangers are. We have no coherent attitude of outlook.
There is no pot of gold at the end of the Chinese economic rainbow. There is no gain in turning a blind eye to its modern slavery or the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) creation of an AI-driven police state, because there is no economic El Dorado. It is a myth peddled by our Treasury and which has been slavishly followed by managerialist politicians.
First, China’s Made in China 2025 policy is designed to wean itself of imports. Prior to Covid, Chinese investment in the UK represents just 0.2 per cent of foreign investment anyway, and that is overwhelmingly focused on high technology, somewhere frankly we should not be welcoming the CCP. Third, jobs created and maintained by Chinese investment amounted to just 3,000 a year, whilst our exports made up just 3.3 per cent of our total. Few firms make durable profits. Their Intellectual Property is taken. Contracts are not enforced. There is a reason we sell less to China than to Ireland or Holland.
By all means, sell to China is you want, but they are far more interested in selling to us. Chinese exports to us were £67 billion. Our imports to them were less than half that.
The reality is that China doesn’t want open and free trade. It wants to use its economic export power to create dependency. It does that by dominating technologies and supply chains. This is not a conspiracy theory, it’s fact, just some of us don’t want to listen. This is trade and economics as a form of warfare.
Here’s China’s dictator Xi Jinping speaking in April 2020: China will “aim to form a ‘counterattack and deterrence’ against other countries by fostering killer technologies and strengthening the global supply chain’s dependence on China.”
Elsewhere, the Chinese Communist Party has made clear that Western …
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