By Philip Yeung
As America retreats into itself, three former imperial powers react differently to its isolationism. Japan decides to rearm and provoke China. France goes on a charm offensive in the Middle Kingdom. And the United Kingdom? It chooses to stalk the middle ground.
Marcon has just returned from a triumphal 4th visit to China, welcomed there like a favorite uncle.
He melted millions of Chinese hearts with his morning jog in Chengdu, greeting passers-by warmly, spoke to students at Sichuan University like a caring father, and even put in a game of table tennis with Chinese champion players, the latest edition of ping-pong diplomacy, French style. He brought 40 CEO's and brought back lucrative contracts for trade and investment. A rich harvest from a country rich with possibilities.
Across the English Channel, Britain's Keir Starmer plays it safe. His lawyerly speak and cold-eyed realpolitik analysis warms no hearts. While he admits that China, the coming power, has arrived, and that the UK recognizes this new reality, and is prepared to make a serious choice, the tone is like a man about to be infected with leprosy. He offers no vision, for there is none.
Starmer began by admitting that the UK-China relationship has swung like a pendulum between the Golden Age and the Ice Age. He personally chooses neither. He likes it lukewarm. He likes it non-binary. Except it rings hollow and is not calculated to quickly defrost the relationship.
To the Chinese, his talk feels like drinking weak English tea, leaving you craving for something strong and satisfying.
Then, he lays down the bottom line: Britain's national security is non-negotiable. But this raises the question:
"How is China a threat to the UK's national security?" This is a foolish question that hurts. But where is the evidence?
As a former courtroom lawyer, he is duty-bound to live and die by evidence. Except he has none, unless you count the case of the clumsily long-time Chinese British immigrant who was caught wooing the UK's disgraced Prince Andrew to brag about his royal connections.
Wooing the pariah prince is bailing out a starving royal, not an act of sabotage. Andrew is out of power and out of access. He has nothing to offer but a tarnished title, and even that is gone now.
So, why is Starmer spewing nonsense? It's time he dials down this factless anti-China hysteria. China has not been in a war for more than half a century. While the US gives the world 800 military bases bristling with missiles, China exports harmless Confucius Institutes.
You are scapegoating the wrong country. You are scratching where it doesn't itch.
As Starmer speaks, America is openly threatening Venezuela with a full-scale invasion to seize the world's richest oil reserve, richer than even Saudi Arabia's.
Starmer forgets that Britain is no longer great. Its global footprint has shrunk to mid-size, marginalized in Europe since Brexit, and begging for a Special Relationship with the US.
He is grateful for the crumbs from Trump, imposing only a 10% tariff on UK imports. He must realize that an isolationist America will not return Britain to relevance. Only China can do that. Only China can offer it relief from an affordability crisis. Britain needs cheap Chinese imports and investments.
So, I say to Starmer, about time you set foot on Chinese soil. Go see its awesome anti-desertification program that turns bone-dry sand dunes into lush green fields.
The Chinese are busy dreaming about a high-tech future while you torture yourself about a non-existent threat to your country's security.
You are still sucking on your anti-China pacifier while Macron has weaned himself off the US-fed hate-China diet.
In its imperial past, Britain made itself great with "cliff-edge" thinking, bold risk-taking, and not playing safe. China is a virtually risk-free country for partnership—the two countries being separated by a vast continent, and conflict-free for more than a century.
On the contrary, Britain was a threat to China's national security by sowing seeds of social unrest in Hong Kong, fighting for a meaningless electoral democracy, as the elected local leader requires a blessing by Beijing.
The discredited one-country-two-systems model was to have been China's solution to the peaceful reunification with Taiwan. Britain planted a time bomb that dismantled that dream. You owe China an apology for the harm you have inflicted on peace in the Pacific.
Britain has lost its empire and even membership in the European Union. Time to stop being a cold, calculating player. You need the China bromance for your rejuvenation.
Seeing China as a necessary evil dooms you to a stuttering start to your national revival. Think long-term in your relationship with a long-term thinking power which has created the biggest economic miracle in human history.
China is a country in evolution. What do you have to fear from pen-wielding scholars and 6-G digital technicians out to transform the future?
Fact-check your accusations before you utter another dirty word about Xinjiang, where the Muslim population has mushroomed, enjoying preferential treatment for university admissions---benefits incompatible with genocidal government.
Put on your thinking cap before your biases come back to bite Britain in the butt.
For your country's sake, Prime Minister Starmer, are you willing to lose your geopolitical virginity by making a virgin visit to China?
Go now. What are you waiting for? An asylum-seeking pariah ex-prince in China?
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Philip Yeung:
Opinion | Germany was punished, Japan was not
Opinion | Japan's Mamasan breaks Sun Tzu's cardinal rule
Opinion | Is Japan's Takaichi another Liz Truss-like lettuce?
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