What does a coherent UK policy towards China look like?

The 12 authors agree China is not and never will be like us’, the essays are also pertinent in the context of possible new US tariffs on Chinese products.

- ANTONIA FILMER

Civitas is an independent Think Tank whose recent publication “Living with the Dragon” is a timely resource for the Labour government following Keir Starmer’s meeting with Xi Jinping at the G20 in Rio; Starmer said he wants a serious and pragmatic relationship.

The 12 authors agree China is not and never will be like “us”, the essays are also pertinent in the context of possible new US tariffs on Chinese products. It seems China is a fact of life and the associated risks and harms must be mitigated to protect national security.

It is worth noting the UK has legislated The National Security & Investment Act 2021 and The National Security Act 2023, but The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme provided for by the later has not yet been implemented. Xi wants a system of government and one party dictatorship pan-Asia, Africa, and Latin America based on state capitalism. Beijing’s objective is to become the dominant superpower in the Western Pacific, so writes Sir Malcolm Rifkind. He claims China’s supremacy is impossible as China’s ideology has no universal appeal, and like the Soviet model it does not want puppet governments in other states. He says the UK and western Europe are Atlantic nations, unlike US which has equal strategic interest great idea Pacific; he warns the Government to not to give the impression it is able to make contributions beyond AUKUS, to the collective security of the IndoPacific. The IPR is significant in the report; Liam Byrne proposes a new UK strategy for enhancing alliances with Europe, Africa and across the wider IPR. And Dr Kevin Rowlands contrasts the variety, diversity and inequality, geographic and cultural differences in the IPR and hopes to prevent it becoming a mega-region of war.