Speaking with the Hudson Institute’s Ben Judah on Wednesday, a senior parliamentarian outlined the shifting attitudes toward China in the British political establishment.
According to Iain Duncan Smith, former leader of the Conservative Party and close ally of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, China’s threat to the global democratic order “is urgent and it is serious,” reflecting a “battle” between “democracy” and “a dictatorial regime.”
Reflecting that understanding, Duncan Smith and Helena Kennedy, a Labour Party parliamentarian, formed the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China in June. Designed to coordinate global democratic action to constrain Chinese aggression, the alliance now has sixteen chapters in nations including Australia, Canada, and other European countries. Duncan Smith says he’s in talks with other parliaments, such as India’s, to join the group. It’s a courageous group. When I asked the alliance whether they had suffered Chinese state cyber-attacks, a spokesman responded “Yes, unsuccessful but repeated.”
Still, Duncan Smith was unambiguous about how he believes Britain must change its China policy.
Economic interests cannot justify continued closed eyes to China’s malevolent activity. Duncan Smith argued that Britain must reassess how it can deal with a nation that is “not obeying any of the rules that exist in that rules-based order.”
Duncan Smith was clear about his resolve to effect this change even against resistance from Johnson’s government. Asked by Judah whether he was confident that the government would end the role of China’s Huawei telecommunications and spy agency in Britain’s 5G network, Duncan Smith responded, “I’m more confident than the government is.”
Duncan Smith was scathing here on the general British approach to China that has held influence since David Cameron became prime minister in 2010. Asked whether he believed the “golden era” Cameron promised between the U.K. and China was a “major strategic mistake,” Duncan Smith simply stated “yes.” He attacked the flippancy with which government ministers have raised concerns over human rights and Chinese imperialism only in passing. These issues cannot be shoved aside, Duncan Smith said, because Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “end [game] is complete dominance,” which poses a “clear and open and obvious challenge” to the free world.
Duncan Smith recognizes the existential political nature of this challenge.
Pointing out recent and particularly aggressive Chinese steps against Australia, Duncan Smith echoed NATO’s Article Five mutual defense language by arguing that any “attack on Australia is an attack on us all.” China, he argued, is a contemporary manifestation of the same ideological ambition that defined the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s. Explicitly comparing Communist China to Nazi Germany, an increasingly apt comparison in light of China’s domestic concentration-extermination camps, Duncan Smith warned that “history teaches us time and time again, when the establishment thinks that it’s too difficult a problem to resolve, then the problem that comes down the tracks is even bigger.”
What if the democratic world does not take action to restrain this rise?
Duncan Smith warned of a dystopian future in which “endless countries become [Chinese] satellite states. … The challenge for the west will be our dependency will grow, our independence will shrink, and our ability to do anything in ten years time will be much diminished.”
Duncan Smith is correct. The democratic world needs to get a grip.
