My Take | China should champion Irish unification
- Fully in accord with its stance on Taiwan, such support would help right the historical wrong of the century-old partition of Ireland and expose the British government’s hypocritical readiness to breach international law by threatening to scupper its deal with the European Union over Northern Ireland’s border inspections
Barely two weeks ago, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned that “countries must play by the rules. And that includes China”.
I suppose it doesn’t include Britain. Her boss, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is about to tear up the post-Brexit trading deal for Northern Ireland with the European Union.
As pointed out by the European Commission, the protocol is “a cornerstone of the [Brexit] withdrawal agreement, [which] is an international agreement”.
So, what does unilaterally scrapping the deal mean? That’s breaching international law. I believe the technical term for that is “not playing by the rules”.
The protocol involves transportation of goods between the United Kingdom (of which Northern Ireland is a part) and the Republic of Ireland. Before Brexit, as everyone was part of the EU, there were no border restrictions.
After Brexit, as part of the UK, Northern Ireland would have needed customs and border controls between it and Ireland. The protocol is to ensure that no checks take place along the Irish border. Instead, inspections and document checks would take place between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, that is, England, Scotland and Wales.