Forcing China to wrestle with Trump is folly – better it joins the UK-EU tag team

When Keir Starmer and his European counterparts are engaged in a difficult and tense separation of European policy from that of Donald Trump’s US over Ukraine, it seems to be piling on to tell them they must do the same for China. But they must.

- Mark Malloch-Brown

Splitting with the US over Putin’s ruthless and illegal campaign against Ukraine, a European neighbour, is difficult but necessary; such a choice over China may appear just plain difficult.

Politicians and public opinion alike fear the impact of Chinese trade and espionage practices on Britain. Prominent figures have been blacklisted by China for challenging these threats. Nor, unlike Ukraine, is Washington divided on China; rather there is a bipartisan consensus that China threatens the US's role in the world. And, correctly, there remains plenty to be dismayed about in China’s horrible human rights record on slave labour on the mainland or democracy in Hong Kong. Further, many observers argue there are cracks in the Chinese economic miracle that may make it a less formidable contender in the future.

Having recently seen Chinese innovation and entrepreneurship up close in Shenzhen, which I remember when it was not much more than a paddy field, I beg to differ. China remains an extraordinary competitor. Shenzhen and Guangdong province have raced up the ladder from low-cost manufacturing extension to Hong Kong to technology innovator and manufacturing giant. Like its US rival, China has amassed the human, financial and physical capital to surprise its critics.