A war over Taiwan would devastate world trade and no country would be shielded from its consequences, least of all China. Those were the comments made by UK foreign secretary James Cleverly on Tuesday, during a speech laying out his government’s China policy.
Cleverly says that half of the world’s container ships pass through the Taiwan Strait each year. He says that a war in the Strait would not only be a human tragedy but would destroy world trade valued at $2.6 trillion, citing numbers from Nikkei Asia. That is why he says it is essential that no party unilaterally attempts to change the status quo.
Cleverly says China has dismantled freedoms in Hong Kong and he condemns mass incarcerations in China’s Xinjiang region, calling it “a 21st century version of the gulag archipelago.”
While identifying challenges in the relationship, Cleverly’s speech emphasized that the UK is also committed to engagement with China. He dismisses the notion of the “Thucydides trap,” which predicts that China and its great power rivals are on an inevitable path to conflict. He says that while the UK will not ignore China’s authoritarianism, it also strives for open, constructive, and stable relations with China.