Opinion | Global Britain’s post-Brexit gamble backfiring as China, EU leave the UK behind
- The post-Brexit calculation in London was that even if Britain struggled on its own, it would still be better than life in a teetering EU
- Things do not seem to be going that way, though, as the EU shows signs of going places and global trade deals are sealed in the UK’s absence
Britain, immersed in its tradition of practicality and balance of power in foreign policy, might have played a restrained and moderate game with China. It could have gone along the line taken by the European Union, especially at a time when it split with the EU and China’s influence as an economic and trade power continues to grow.
One might say London is launching its “Global Britain” initiative by marching in lockstep with a China-bashing America, but that doesn’t add up. Britain’s free trade deal with Turkey is no more than pint-sized; its bilateral economic agreement with Japan does not play to its advantage, given a lack of competitiveness in Britain’s industrial structure; and the United States no longer has deep enough pockets or the willingness to pay Britain for its ideological loyalty. A reinvented British Commonwealth aligning Australia, New Zealand and perhaps India? Good luck.
“Europe” is the buzzword, according to Cambridge history professor Brendon Simms. He wrote in his book Britain’s Europe that the “virtuous cycle” of Britain’s fortune for the past 1,000 years has been “one which began and ended in Europe”.
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China bans BBC World News over Xinjiang report and after China state broadcaster loses UK licence
When former British Prime Minister David Cameron went ahead with the Brexit referendum, he was far from alone in figuring that, even if his gamble went awry, whatever Britain’s problems were then would pale into insignificance with those of the EU. Pessimistic tea-leaf reading of the EU had flooded the British media after the 2008 global financial crisis.