Cameron’s Rush to be China’s Best Friend Endangers ‘Special Relationship’

While the UK wined and dined the Chinese leader and struck deals to build nuclear power stations, the actual Americans were defying China’s aggressive expansionism in the South The far east Sea. The British technique has angered the US also it could cause major fissures in the ‘unique relationship’.

A gulf has opened up between your United Kingdom’s sycophantic pursuit of industry deals with China at any cost and the US Government’s determination to stand up to its rival extremely power. The danger is that the resentment that the British strategy could provoke in the US could cause lasting damage to a “special relationship” founded on an assumption of shared values.

At the end of October, there were hugely symbolic acts by both governments that expressed those different attitudes starkly. In the united kingdom, Prime Minister David Cameron pulled out all of the stops to impress China’s Leader Xi Jinping on his first official visit. Banquets at Buckingham Palace as well as in the City of London were redolent from the new love affair. Cameron impressed their new friend with British beers and fish and chips. He proclaimed the “golden age” of British-Chinese relations, although Chancellor George Osborne called for Britain to become “China’s best partner within the West”. There was lots of talk of US$46 billion worth of deals, including a controversial agreement to allow The far east to build British nuclear energy stations. However, there was no mention of China’s human rights abuses, or aggression towards it’s neighbouring countries.

Meanwhile, tensions between your United States and China were building. Just a couple of days following President Xi Jinping left the UK, the US sent a guided-missile destroyer into disputed waters in the South The far east Sea. It was a provocation. The actual destroyer sailed within the 12-nautical-mile radius area surrounding reefs in the Spratly archipelago, which are the subject of a territorial dispute between China and its neighbors, especially Vietnam and the Philippines. The actual Americans say China has ignored maritime boundaries as well as artificially expanded some island destinations for military purposes. They argue no one can prevent them sailing in international waters. However, the Chinese responded through flying jets overhead and Navy Chief Admiral Wu Shengli said a likewise “dangerous and provocative act” could lead one day lead to war between the two superpowers.

“The UK Government doesn’t appear to be aware of the wider geo-political context. There’s a strong linkage between the UK’utes relationship with China with its relationship with the All of us,” said Christopher Hughes, the Professor of International Relations at the LSE. “This is a time of great tension in China-US relations. We’ve had the stand-off in the South China Sea, but additionally President Obama has warned the Chinese about cyber warfare and there are concerns that the coming elections in Taiwan in January will raise tensions further.”

“The UK Government has ignored all that and may be sleepwalking into a choice to walk away from the Americans as well as align themselves with China without thinking through the consequences. It is short sighted and there is a danger it will antagonise the Americans. Its crude foreign policy has made the British Government a having a laugh stock on China”

Professor Hughes said the lobbying of British businesses for a less critical position towards China swayed the actual British Government. “Kowtowing and saying we will do anything you want should you give us money sends the wrong message to China,” he said. The Dalai Lama expressed the same view of the British Government’utes China strategy recently when he said they were only interested in “money, money, money”. “Where is the actual morality?” he asked.

The Dalai Lama offers good reasons to feel frustrated by the actual British Government. In The year 2013, he met David Cameron to discuss China’s occupation of their homeland of Tibet and received a sympathetic ear. However, the Chinese reacted to the meeting by freezing out the United kingdom from diplomatic relations for a 12 months. Terrified of losing trade, Cameron has since refused to meet the actual Dalai Lama.

Professor Hughes says the UK offers chosen a bad time to remain silent about China’s intense foreign policies. The proper importance of the South China Sea makes it legitimate in order to question China’s actions there. Around half the world’s shipping passes through the sea, much of it Persian Gulf oil destined for Japan, The far east, South Korea, and other states.

“It’utes hard to see us getting any sway over China’utes internal policies on individual rights and to some extent they’re right to say those are their issues,” said Teacher Hughes. “But foreign coverage is a different matter. These are international issues in places that we have a lot of trade and investment.”

Prime Minister Cameron’s rejection to discuss any of these important geo-political issues has played into China’utes hands by undermining the US. “If the UK supports other states in the region, we are more likely to see international law upheld. Just pursuing investment and ignoring international security is dangerous since it allows China to divide and rule, something at which they are an expert.  Their diplomatic goal would be to drive a wedge between your US and their allies. Creating divisions between the US and the UK, or other EU says, helps China to deal with the US,” said Professor Hughes.

The Obama administration also has major security issues about the UK’s willingness to permit China to build its atomic infrastructure. Intelligence agencies that fear the state-owned China Common Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) reveal these worries and could insert backdoor traps into it’s technology, enabling it to seal down stations in the event of a diplomatic row.  

CGN is co-building with the France’s ECF the £25 billion atomic plant at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, to open in 2025. Two other nuclear stations, at Sizewell in Suffolk, and Bradwell in Essex, will be to follow. The plan is for the guarana plant at Bradwell to be Chinese-designed, which will supply China with the first Traditional western showcase of its nuclear technology.

“The decision shows the incompetence of decision-making in London. It is ridiculous to argue, as Cameron has, that the spy agency GCHQ can monitor the computer systems constructed by China at the atomic facilities,” said Professor Christie. “It’s as if the trusting pubic schoolboys running the Government have seen too many James Bond movies. The reality is that we are up against a huge pressure in China. They have been investing huge amounts of money in cyber combat. The Australians and People in america are well aware of it and they will not let China invest in these critical sectors. You only see that in the UK, where the business community has the ear of the Chancellor and the Government do not want to listen to anyone who raises warning flags. From a protection point of view, it’s a joke.”  

There had been already growing tensions between your US and UK over China back in March whenever an official spokesman in the Federal government lambasted Britain’s “constant accommodation” of the superpower. The criticism came after the UK gave Obama virtually no discover of its decision to become the first G7 country to join the Oriental Infrastructure Investment Bank, a US$50 billion lending institution that The far east founded to counter the planet Bank and the Asian Improvement Bank. The Americans stated the UK’s decision compromised the entire G7 and questioned if the new lending institution conformed towards the standards of the World Bank. “The UK’s decision humiliated the US diplomatically and earned a community rebuke. But the UK still went ahead with their arrangement along with China as though they can simply ignore what the Americans think,” said Professor Hughes.

Envy associated with Germany’s success at exporting to China over the past years also motivates the UK’s desperation to become China’s major European trading partner. The British have felt freezing out of China for a long time. German born manufacturing proved attractive to china, but the Government was also much more diplomatically proactive. 

“There are sound economic reasons for the British strategy. China is moving much more towards a service-based economy and that’s what we can sell to them, rather than manufacturing goods like the Germans. However, if in order to gain an edge, you sacrifice fundamental principles of the European Union about human rights and worldwide law, the strategy is seriously flawed.

“Cameron has for a long time already been fixated on Syria and the Center East. He appears to understand little about China, referring to the President as ‘the Chinese Premier’ on television. That was a serious lapse associated with diplomatic protocol that revealed exactly how shallow his knowledge. There’utes been very little strategic taking into consideration the situation and the long-term consequences.”