The rise of China – or perhaps its awakening from a long sleep – has shaken the world , evoking the line popularly attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. The current dilemma facing world leaders is unavoidable. It appears to come with a bag of mixed blessings, especially during an era of intensified competition between China and the United States. This certainly applies to the United Kingdom. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government are struggling to find a balance between Britain’s historical allegiance to Washington and the opportunities presented by a closer relationship with Beijing. The Global Investment Summit in London on October 19, which was designed to increase investment to the UK after its departure from the European Union, attests to this fact. As an active observer of and participant in the British policymaking process, who remembers former prime minister David Cameron’s “ golden era ” approach to China, I understand well that China plays a crucial role in the Britain’s economic prosperity. Beijing invested £3.2 billion (US$4.4 billion) in the UK in 2019, accounting for 0.2 per cent of Britain’s total inward foreign direct investment. While this is to be welcomed, every country has the right to protect its national security and needs to be able to scrutinise inward investments that may pose a threat. To that end, Britain’s recently enacted National Security and Investment Act is a useful tool. The fact it was introduced when the UK was in the process of barring Chinese companies from its 5G communication networks and nuclear power raises questions as to whether it had specific nations in mind. On top of that, the government needs to be more specific about its strategy of allowing Chinese investment in “non-strategic parts of the economy”, which currently seems unclear. The fact is that China is the UK’s third-largest trading partner and accounts for about 7.5 per cent of the country’s total trade. According to a recent fact sheet on China published by the Department for International Trade, total trade between the UK and China in goods and services in the year to the end of the second quarter of 2021 was £93 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.8 per cent. In the same period, London had a trade in goods deficit with Beijing of £47 billion compared with £18.9 billion the previous year. It also had a trade surplus in services of £4.8 billion, down from £6.7 billion to the end of the second quarter of 2020. All these figures can be improved if the British government can maintain a favourable trade environment. However, that could be a problem for Johnson. According to Jo Johnson, the prime minister’s brother and the former universities minister, “he is facing a Conservative party for which Sinophobia is the new Euroscepticism”. In March, Johnson’s government published “Global Britain in a Competitive Age: the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy”. The document describes the UK’s vision for its role in the world in the next decade, in particular its plans to engage more deeply in the Indo-Pacific. The dispatch of Britain’s Carrier Strike Group , led by the Royal Navy aircraft carrier the HMS Queen Elizabeth, has all the hallmarks of gunboat diplomacy. Such a projection of force, it is hoped, will contribute to securing lucrative trade deals in the region, which is considered the world’s growth engine and already accounts for 17.5 per cent of Britain’s global trade and 10 per cent of inward FDI. The House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee published a report titled “The UK and China’s security and trade relationship: A strategic void” on September 10. It leaves no doubt that Britain cannot have it both ways in its ties with China as its words do not match its actions. A serious policy approach requires clarity, not vague sound bites like “ systemic competitor ”, which could also be understood as a euphemism for “threat”. It is time to abandon the notion that China poses a threat to the UK. China certainly cannot be ignored economically or commercially. Figures from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund show China overtook the US as the world’s largest economy in purchasing power parity terms in 2017. It is expected to become the world’s largest economy in terms of nominal GDP by 2030. In its 2021 China consumer report, McKinsey called China’s middle class the “growth engine of the world”. China is expected to account for 400 million of the expected 600 million increase in the global middle class between 2019 and 2030. China and the Indo-Pacific region are expected to be home to more than half the world’s middle class, whose population is set to rise to 3.5 billion, by 2050. Britain’s lack of a clear strategy towards China is a barrier to increased trade and investment, according to the House of Lords’ report. Johnson, who has said China “is a gigantic part of our economic life and will be for a long time – for our lifetimes”, would be well-advised to heed his own words and prioritise formulating a clear, coherent strategy that has the UK’s best interests at heart while also minimising the risk of further damage to Sino-UK relations. It will not be an easy task, but it is vital as it will define our and future generations’ well-being in the years to come. Adriel Kasonta is a London-based political risk consultant and lawyer, and a graduate of London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)