Advice for a new prime minister
Britain should renew ties with old friends in Asia, advises George Yeo
Singapore’s former foreign minister thinks Britain now needs both China and the Commonwealth
Oct 27th 2022
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In july i visited my old college in Cambridge for a special lunch. The college looked better than ever. But when I asked afterwards how to travel to Great Yarmouth, where my son was interning as a junior doctor, few could help me. Great Yarmouth is only 118km away but getting there requires a slow, rickety train ride. There was hardly a foreigner in the seaside town, though the inhabitants were friendly to me. A man on the waterfront fishing for crabs with his children gave me a line and offered to leave it with me when he left. My day there made me nostalgic for the Britain I left in the 1970s (Edward Heath’s three-day week notwithstanding). But it also bothered me that too little had changed. I wondered how long it would take for Chinese companies to revamp the country’s creaking infrastructure.
With its bruised economy and disruptive politics, there is no shortcut to recovering Britain’s standing in the world. The country’s recent political crises have hardly helped. The new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, should appreciate that the journey to recovery will be arduous. Fortunately, there are many old friends too-long forgotten or underrated, particularly in Asia, who can be willing travel companions.
When the British people voted in favour of Brexit in 2016, my heart leapt for them. I was familiar with the economic arguments against Brexit and aware that they would have to pay a heavy price. There is, however, a free-spiritedness in the British people which was never fully at ease in Europe. For centuries, British foreign policy was to prevent any power on the continent from becoming too dominant. By the day of the referendum just over half of British voters felt that the eu and Brussels had become so.
Britain’s international links today are shaped both by its location in Europe and by its history as an imperial power. The empire changed Britain: just look at how diverse London is today. Mr Sunak’s Indian heritage is greeted with interest all over the world. This diversity represents a social shift that is set to stay. Britain’s empire has also changed those once colonised. We may each have a critique of Britain’s imperial legacy, but we all know that some of that legacy is for the good. The Commonwealth is an alumni association which brings leaders and ministers regularly together in bonhomie, seemingly without accomplishing anything serious. It holds significance nonetheless, as shown by the requests of Francophone countries to join. Lee Kuan Yew never attended the un General Assembly, but he never missed a single Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in his many years as Singapore’s prime minister. Mr Sunak should not underestimate the goodwill for the British people in the Commonwealth.
When Britain joined the European Economic Community, the eu’s forebear, in 1973, there was a feeling in the Commonwealth that the country had turned its back on it. With Brexit, there is a sense that Britain may now value us again. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka should be the most important owing to their size and to the number of immigrants they have sent to Britain. Next in significance are the 21 African members of the Commonwealth, all of whom would benefit from stronger relations with a benign Britain. Malaysia and Singapore are natural friends for the country, too. When Brexit was announced, my immediate reaction was to advise old colleagues in Singapore’s government to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with Britain.
For Britain to prosper from its Commonwealth ties, there has to be a change in basic attitude and a fundamental reallocation of its human and financial resources in new (really, old) directions. London should play a leading role in the reinvigoration of the Commonwealth. King Charles, as the new head of the Commonwealth, should signal a change in direction. However, like his mother, he should never preach to member countries. He should also be unfailingly courteous to all Commonwealth heads of government.
Britain also needs to take a long view of its relationship with China. The return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 was unavoidable but painful; China’s introduction of the National Security Law in 2020 even more so; but life goes on and Hong Kong will remain important to Britain. Hong Kongers still cherish their links to Britain; Beijing may not like that but it will tolerate such nostalgia if bilateral relations are in good repair. Britain’s economic interests in Hong Kong are not insubstantial. According to Hong Kong Government statistics, the outward stock of foreign direct investment (fdi) from the UK in Hong Kong in 2020 was £76bn—4.6% of total UK outward fdi spending.
David Cameron’s government was pragmatic and the first among eu countries publicly to break ranks with America and become part of China’s Asian Infrastructure Bank Initiative in 2015. But under American pressure, Britain has also taken action against Huawei even though communications experts thought the risk to national security was manageable. The stark reality is that Britain needs China more than the other way around. Without the yuan the City of London is disadvantaged because the yuan in circulation outside China will continue to grow and become another reserve currency and an international currency of trade.
It is unrealistic to expect China to change in the way the West wants it to. The Chinese Communist Party’s recent five-yearly congress has made that clear. Yet a better relationship with China is in the interest of the British people. Despite the legacy of imperialism, there is more goodwill for Britain in China than most Britishers realise. William Shakespeare is frequently quoted. Xu Zhimo’s poem of 1928, “Farewell to Cambridge,” is still evocative.
Britain has to strike a balance between its national interest and its special relationship with America. It will take time for Britain’s view of China to turn around again. China will change its behaviour gradually when it is in its own interest and not because America or the West pressure it to. Britain gets more respect from China and the Commonwealth by acting independently. ■
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George Yeo was a member of Singapore’s Parliament between 1988 and 2011 and served as the country’s foreign minister between 2004 and 2011.
