HAVING made clear Labour’s voluntary enlistment in a new round of militarisation openly directed against China, David Lammy talks of its importance to the British economy and the need to co-operate with China to meet “global threats.” Lammy believes this is a “more consistent” approach than previous Tory policy toward China.

Lammy writes: “The United Kingdom’s approach to the country has oscillated wildly over the past 14 years. Former prime minister David Cameron sought to create what he called a ‘golden era’ of engagement with Beijing in 2015, which swung to overt hostility when Liz Truss became prime minister in September 2022. British policy has shifted again under prime minister Rishi Sunak, who made Cameron his foreign secretary in late 2023, into confused ambiguity.

“The United Kingdom must instead adopt a more consistent strategy, one that simultaneously challenges, competes against, and co-operates with China as appropriate. Such an approach would recognise that Beijing poses a systemic challenge for British interests and that the Chinese Communist Party poses real security threats. But it would also recognise China’s importance to the British economy. It would accept that no grouping of states can address the global threats of the climate crisis, pandemics, and artificial intelligence unless it co-operates with Beijing. There is a crucial difference between “de-risking” and decoupling, and it is in everyone’s interest that China’s relationship with the West endure and evolve.”