Getting relations with China right is widely seen as Britain’s epoch-defining challenge. It is also one it is woefully unprepared to face.
So concluded a recent audit by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), which highlighted that top negotiators lacked basic Chinese language skills. More critically, it exposed a deeper deficit: a poor grasp of China spanning political elites and the public alike. This is rooted in a desk-bound classroom sinology rather than a nuanced appreciation and lived immersion.
Yet IPAC’s audit will do little to fix this deficit. Indeed, its ideological framing will deepen it.
The report depicts China as a neo-totalitarian state seeking to engineer the souls of its citizens. It alleges that this coercive ambition extends globally, that Beijing seeks to upend the liberal world order to usher in an era favourable to authoritarian imperialism.