On the eve of British Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s trip to China, Madeline Grant, described as The Independent’s “parliamentary sketchwriter,” concludes that “Under Lammy, the UK is back to appeasing China” (October 16, 2024). She doesn’t expect much from the trip and she doesn’t see much backbone in Labour or in Lammy.
The two worst characteristics in a leader are stupidity and cowardice, she says; and of the two, cowardice is worse.
In her view, Lammy is both silly and cowardly. But he can be no more cowardly than the other policymakers responsible for recent bad decisions.
● Britain has just “ ‘postponed’ a visit from Taiwan’s former president Tsai Ing-wen, while other countries are welcoming her.” A postponement decided even as China was expanding its military drills in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan in angry retaliation against the ROC’s latest affirming of its independence.
● Britain’s allowing Mauritius to absorb the Chagos Islands “evidently had as much to do with appeasing China by pleasing its ally” than about righting wrongs of the 1960s.
● As for the Uyghur genocide, described as such by Labour when in opposition to the government, the language “has since been dialled down, while the Government has apparently instructed its MPs not to speak of China as a ‘threat’. The CCP hasn’t changed since July. So why has Keir Starmer’s Labour Party?”
● A few months ago, the new Labour government scuttled legislation passed by the previous government to enforce freedom of speech on campus at least in part “due to universities’ concerns about protecting their operations in authoritarian states like China. When China’s malign actions collide with other policy objectives, it seems Labour will generally choose the path of least resistance.”
Grant believes that Lammy’s role in these retreats, with doubtless more to come, is significant. “A man obsessed with empty gestures and moralistic posturing, he appears so concerned with the ‘optics’ of things that he is arguably blind to the very real threats—hard power ones—that our enemies represent…. A picture is emerging of an anchorless government, too weak to hold firm or reject poor advice….”
It’s still early days in the latest new British government. But, yes, that’s how it looks. And the totalitarian government of China will be one of the beneficiaries.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: On Courage: Our Ultimate Weapon Against the Chinese Communist Party
