Cold War With China ‘Betrayal’ of National Interest: UK Foreign Secretary

Cleverly criticised for "foreign policy naivety"

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly delivers a speech during the Easter Banquet at Mansion House in London on April 25, 2023. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a major policy speech on Tuesday that it would be a mistake to declare a new Cold War with China.

It comes six weeks after the UK published its updated foreign and defence policy strategy, labelling China an “epoch-defining challenge.”

But China-focused policy and human rights campaigners said it’s “wishful thinking” to expect a communist regime to cooperate on global issues, and that the speech revealed the UK’s foreign policy naivety.

Speaking at the Lord Mayor’s Easter Banquet on Tuesday, Cleverly said it’s “impossible, impractical” and“unwise” to sum up China in one word, whether it’s “threat,” “partner,” or “adversary.”

He acknowledged that the Chinese regime represents “a ruthless authoritarian tradition utterly at odds with our own” and described the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) mass detention of the Uyghur people as a “21st century version of the gulag archipelago.”

But he argued not engaging with the country would be “shirking” the duty to shape the international order for future generations and a sign of weakness.

Cleverly said he rejects “any notion of inevitability” or fatalism about China’s future and its relationship with the United States and the wider West, saying, “We have agency, we have choices, and so do our Chinese counterparts.”

Noting that China has “the biggest repository of health data ... the biggest source of active ingredients for the world’s pharmaceuticals ... and the biggest source of carbon emissions,” the foreign secretary said China has to be involved in significant global problem such as climate change, pandemic prevention,  economic instability, and nuclear proliferation.

“It would be clear and easy—and perhaps even satisfying—for me to declare some kind of new Cold War and say that our goal is to isolate China,” but “it would be wrong because it would be a betrayal of our national interest and a willful misunderstanding of the modern world.”

Security personnel keep watch outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the World Health Organization team tasked with investigating the origins of COVID-19, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 3, 2021. Thomas Peter/Reuters

Cleverly said a democracy like the UK “will always be torn” between its national interest in dealing with China and its “abhorrence of Beijing’s abuses,” and therefore the UK “must engage with China where necessary and be unflinchingly realistic about its authoritarianism.”

It’s broadly in line with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s speech at the Lord Mayor’s banquet in November last year, in which he announced the ending of the so-called Golden Era of of Sino–British relationship while dismissing what he said was the “simplistic Cold War rhetoric.”

The foreign secretary said the UK will use a three-pillared China policy approach, including strengthening national security, and cooperating with global allies including Indo-Pacific countries, but also direct engagement with China and the ruling communist regime.

He said the government would continue to support British companies that do business with China while avoiding “dependencies in critical supply chains.”

He also said the UK has “an interest in continuing to benefit from Chinese investment” but  “don’t want the long arm of the Chinese Communist Party reaching towards the central nervous system of our country.”

He said the UK government is doubling funding to boost the government China capabilities and “determined” to reach an agreement with Beijing to build a new British Embassy in Beijing.

To enhance the UK’s national security, Cleverly vowed not to be silent about Beijing’s attempt at political interference, technology theft, or industrial sabotage; safeguard academic freedom and research; prioritise national security in areas such as building a 5G network, and keep criticising the CCP for its human rights violations.

Globally, Cleverly said the UK will increase security and commercial ties with partners in the Indo-Pacific and across the world, including through its upcoming accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

A Chinese military jet flies over Pingtan Island, one of mainland China's closest points to Taiwan, in Fujian Province on Aug. 5, 2022. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

The UK on March 31 became the first European country to sign an agreement to join the CPTPP. If the agreement is ratified, it’s estimated to boost the UK’s GDP by 0.08 percent over the long term. China and Taiwan have also applied to join the trade pact.

If CCP Invades Taiwan

Cleverly warned that an invasion of Taiwan would “destroy” the global economy.

He called on Beijing to be open about the intention behind its ongoing “biggest military build-up in peacetime history” including new warships and new bases in the South China Sea and beyond, to reduce the risk of “tragic miscalculation.”

“And if we are left to draw our own conclusions, prudence dictates that we must assume the worst,” he said.

According to the Economist, Taiwan supplies more than 60 percent of the world’s semiconductors and almost all (over 90 percent) of the most advanced chips.

Cleverly said half of the world’s container ships also pass through the Taiwan strait every year, making the area a “crucial link in global supply chains.”

Citing Nikkei Asia’s estimate that $2.6 trillion worth of the world’s trade would evaporate if the United States, the EU and Japan sanction China in the case of an invasion of Taiwan as they did Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Cleverly said, “No country could shield itself from the repercussions.”

“Distance would offer no protection from this catastrophic blow to the global economy—and least China’s most of all,” he said.

“I shudder to contemplate the human and financial ruin that would follow,” he added, warning against unilateral action to change the status quo.

‘Foreign Policy Naivety’

In an article published in Politics Home, Luke de Pulford, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, called Cleverly’s focus on the Cold War rhetoric “straw man stuff,” saying no MPs have been calling on the government to declare a new Cold War and isolate China.

He said it’s not a Cold War the foreign secretary should worry about, but a hot war in Taiwan and the absence of British government strategy about it.

De Pulford called Cleverly’s comments naive as Chinese leader Xi Jinping has “never kept a climate promise, and uses the climate issue as a diplomatic bargaining chip against naive governments” and following the Chinese regime’s behaviour during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its forced exclusion of Taiwan from pandemic discussions.

Sharing the article on Twitter, Benedict Rogers, cofounder of Hong Kong Watch and the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, and author of The China Nexus, said while he likes Cleverly as a person and respects Sunak, he “simply cannot help but strongly and passionately agree with” de Pulford when it comes to China policy.

In a statement email to The Epoch Times, Mark Sabah, UK and EU Director at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, also said the speech “reveals the UK’s foreign policy naivety.”

“It is wishful thinking to believe that a nation that systematically breaks its international promises will decide to keep them simply because James Cleverly wants them to do so,” he said.

“It seems as if James Cleverly is willing to give China a pass so long as Britain’s trade and investment can flourish, which sets a horrific precedent for other European nations who are currently in disarray regarding how to approach China,” he added.