No permanent friends for Britain in newly pragmatic foreign policy

Emanuele Scimia says Britain's charm offensive to China shows that it may be focusing more on a rising multipolar world order and less on its special relationship with the US

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Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping, was welcomed by British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond during their state visit to the UK. In September, Hammond hailed a reform to Japan's self-defence laws that incensed Beijing. Photo: AP

Published: 3:48pm, 27 Oct 2015

Trade diplomacy, along with British Chancellor George Osborne's narrative of London that yearns to become "Beijing's best partner in the West", definitely dominated the scene in the just-concluded four-day state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the United Kingdom.

The problem for Britain is that the prospective pivot to the Asian giant, which Osborne first outlined on a high-level trip to China in September, has the potential to dent its long-standing relations with the United States. The government in Washington was already disappointed with the British leadership in March, when the UK was the first European Union country to join the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Beijing's alternative to the architecture of multilateral institutions that the US shaped in the aftermath of the second world war.

A multi-vector diplomacy entails that a country has no strategic ally, but only strategic interests

Britain is probably attempting to reshape its foreign policy, and it looks like Washington's possible decline as a superpower frightens the British cabinet much more than the current slowdown in China's economy. This does not mean that London will quietly fall into line with Beijing's policies, as some observers contend, alluding in particular to the UK government's apparent reluctance to engage Chinese leaders over human rights and the future status of the former British colony of Hong Kong.

The reality is more complex and mirrors the blossoming of a multi-vector diplomacy in London, much less focused on the traditional special relationship with the US and more concentrated on diversifying trade and political partners. In this prospect, the model to refer to is Germany, which is both a strong ally of Washington and a key economic partner for China (and Russia).

A fleet review of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force was conducted at Sagami Bay, off Yokosuka. Photo: Reuters