The twin themes emerging from this week’s defence and security review include a geo-political pivot towards the Asia-Pacific basin, and a belated recognition of the considerable threats China poses across the board, according to Charles Moore in this week’s Telegraph.
“The word “global” indicates that, post-Brexit, we are not tied into the EU power bloc and that threats, opportunities and communications stretch right round the world. Our region has become less significant.
The word “competitive” suggests movement, change and a consciousness of threat. For the first time since the post-1945 settlement, Britain is not a status quo power – which, so long as it stayed in the EU, it was bound to be. It is now a country seeking, with allies, to readjust a world that has gone wrong.”
More alarmingly, “The UK is, for China, “a priority target across multiple spheres”, including space, cyber-space, tech and disinformation. China’s competition in the world is “the most significant geopolitical factor of the 2020s”. And it’s going the wrong way: China’s “15-year decline in democracy and pluralism will continue to 2030, accelerated by Covid-19”. The risk, and the stakes, are at last recognised as high. As one serving general puts the Cold War comparison to me: “Taiwan could become the Berlin of our day.”
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