Opinion | HSBC owes no apology over US coercion of the UK
By Tom Fowdy
The head of HSBC's public affairs department, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, recently apologized after accusing the British government of being "weak" for following US demands to sour its relationship with China, citing pressure from Washington over Huawei's participation in 5G networks. He later claimed his views did not represent those of the company as a whole.
HSBC, known properly as the "Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation" was born out of the era of British Imperialism and rule within the territory. While once dominated by Britain accordingly, the decline of the Empire, coupled with the British handover of Hong Kong, and the rise of China as an economic giant, have subsequently changed the center of gravity of its business and upended its colonial roots, making it a more Sinocentric firm that the British government has lost influence over.
But does the head of HSBC have anything to truly apologize for? Absolutely not. Nobody should ever be made to apologize for stating the reality that the United States wields disproportionate power over the UK's foreign policy, and that its push against China is duly compromising the British national interest. Instead, Copwer-Coles is telling the truth, the US is harming the UK by shepherding it into a confrontational, ideological and self-destructive foreign policy pertaining to China which is squandering a golden opportunity.
Britain is not in a good way right now. Its economy is stagnation, real incomes are shrinking and inflation is surging. The country has been beset by industrial unrest, supply chain squeezes, crippling energy prices and skyrocketing interest rates. The government's policies are duly responsible, including the catastrophe of Brexit, the decision to go full throttle in escalating and prolonging the war in Ukraine, its disastrous management of COVID-19 and the impact of lockdowns and of course the decision to pursue adversarial policies against China too. It is little wonder that the current government is facing record unpopularity, and that if a general election were to be held today, they would lose by a landslide.
UK foreign policy regarding China used to be positive and amicable. Boris Johnson understood China as a critical commercial partner and opportunity amidst Brexit. That option was forcibly taken away from him in 2020, as the United States demanded a reset in British foreign policy which subsequently shoehorned it into an "Indo-Pacific tilt." Britain subsequently dumped Huawei from its 5G network at a great personal expense, despite the fact no "security threat" was ever proven (quite the opposite), while the US subsequently forced the change through driving wedges with a number of controversial issues such as Xinjiang and inciting unrest in Hong Kong. The doves in Britain soon lost out as a number of hardline Tory hawks gained influence, including of course Liz Truss herself.
Currently, the government of Rishi Sunak has tried to draw a balance between confrontation and engagement in its relations with China, as also stressed by foreign secretary James Cleverly. However, the toxic atmosphere of relations as driven by the right-wing British press, as well as the BBC, has made this for all practical purposes untenable. Only yesterday was the Telegraph pushing a story claiming that Chinese-made electric cars imported to Britain will "spy" on people, of course without any evidence whatsoever. Given that climate change is constantly an area where engagement is stressed by the government, such poisonous hyperbole demonstrates the clear limits of a productive relationship.
It is therefore an empirical fact that Britain needs to reassert strategic autonomy in its foreign policy, which has become too beholden to the strategic objectives of the United States. China represents the largest and most lucrative market in the world. The US has routinely sought to use various issues to block its allies from benefitting or deepening their ties with this market, using pretenses such as "national security" or "human rights abuses" to force decoupling. Although the Boris Johnson government sought to resist this in several areas, such as Huawei, or the takeover of the Newport Wafer Fab, the US ultimately got its way every time, as demonstrated by the infamous leak that Matthew Pottinger ranted at the British cabinet for five hours flat.
The UK and America may have historical and cultural ties which make them deeply affiliated with each other, but that does not mean everything that is in the US interest, is necessarily in the British one. The UK needs a lucrative relationship with China urgently amidst all the chaos, and it is worth noting that the US has never taken the UK's cherished wish for a "free trade agreement" seriously, instead demanding capitulation. British politicians must stop idolizing Washington and establish a mindset of practical and independently calibrated national interest.
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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