UK Labour speaks with a forked tongue on China

ANALYSIS: Progressive realism seems little more than a cloak for wilful strategic negilgence.

There is no problem with Rachel Reeves going to China.

While the uber-China hawks howl with fury at the visits made by UK Cabinet ministers (and those made by members of the previous government) contact is a good thing.

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves shakes hands with China’s Finance Minister Lan Fo'an in Beijing.

We saw during the pandemic what isolation did to Russian President Vladimir Putin and indeed Xi Jinping, who used prolonged inhumane lockdowns to pursue a Zero-Covid strategy until a mini-revolt started.

The true measures are the intention of the visits, the signals sent during them, and the outcomes achieved.

China claimed not to know about supporting Russia

This week David Lammy gave a major foreign policy speech.

It was his most confident performance in the job yet. The Foreign Secretary told High Commissioners, Ambassadors, diplomats, think tankers and media, that when it came to China: ‘We have to challenge them not to throw their lot in with Putin.’

China has been acting as what NATO calls a ‘decisive enabler’ of Putin’s war in Ukraine by helping it dodge Western sanctions and supplying it with items that can be used for both domestic and military applications.

But Xi has also been an effective and necessary handbrake on his ‘no limits’ partner according to Lammy’s outgoing US counterpart Antony Blinken, who recently told the Financial Times that when it came to Putin’s nuclear threats: ‘We have reason to believe that China engaged Russia and said: “Don’t go there”’.

'Improbable' China will negotiate end to Ukraine war

It’s why some, Lammy included, hold out hope that the Russia-China nexus can be split, although so far the security community has tended to favour the idea that it is Russia that can be peeled away from China rather than vice versa.

Speaking to the press after his Locarno speech, named after the gilded room in the Foreign Office where he delivered his address, Mr Lammy elaborated on his progressive realism approach to foreign policy.

David Lammy's foreign policy speech avoids the T-word

‘When I was in Beijing, making it absolutely clear to the Chinese that we see the dual-use technology that is making its way to Russia and is being used to kill troops in Ukraine – I provided them with the information,’ Lammy told the group of about 40 journalists.

‘They said they weren't aware of the information, they wanted the information.

‘I provided them with the information and then we've gone off to sanction the companies involved.’

What China said when presented with evidence was not revealed. Still, the spectacle Lammy recounted was laughable, more seriously it should have served as a harbinger of the PRC’s utter disregard for the truth as well as its destabilising actions in aiding Russia’s war, and how the CCP views the UK.

Lammy insisted that Reeves would repeat many of the messages he delivered when in Beijing on her trip taking place this weekend.

‘There are many areas of trade that don't impact on national security and just as the United States has been able to do that I think our economy can do the same,’ he said.

The United States has a bipartisan hawkishness when it comes to China. The outgoing Biden Administration has imposed huge tariffs on the Chinese electric car market and said there are spying concerns regarding smart vehicles. It has sought to claw back manufacturing from China through the Inflation Reduction Act which subsidises green tech as well as the Chips Act which incentivises onshore semiconductor production.

It has also listed a swathe of Chinese companies, including the gaming and WeChat developer Tencent, on the entity list, accusing it of working with the military.

The UK is nowhere near introducing these sorts of industrial and sanctions policies.

In fact, it goes into hiding citing reviews when questioned about basic tools in its kit, such as whether to demand higher levels of disclosure from anyone acting on behalf of the PRC compared to those operating for more benign foreign powers under the Foreign Influence Register Scheme, despite insisting it is not ‘complacent’ about the risks China poses.