hankyoreh

MP Alicia Kearns, chair of the British Parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee. (courtesy of Kearns)

The EU has recently opted for a strategic direction of “de-risking” rather than “decoupling” when it comes to China, essentially stating that while there are areas, such as climate change, that it must work with Beijing on, it intends to cut down its dependencies on China such as by diversifying raw material supply chains amid intensifying competition between systems. But how does the UK, now no longer a member of the EU, view China?

A conversation with MP Alicia Kearns, a Conservative lawmaker who serves as chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, shows that the UK’s perspective largely resembles that of the US. The Hankyoreh spoke to Kearns over Zoom on July 17.

Kearns became a member of parliament in December 2019 after working in counter-terrorism at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. She is also a member of the China Research Group and the National Security Strategy joint committee.

Alicia Kearns: What’s changed is the way that China and the Chinese Communist Party is behaving. The reason why the Western world has had to wake up is that we have been given no choice. The Chinese government, as it currently is, has made it very clear that they plan to pursue a more aggressive foreign policy. There's a big difference between aggressive and assertive — they are following an aggressive foreign policy. Unfortunately, the way in which they pursue their foreign policy is inherently to make other countries dependent on them to adopt policies of transnational repression, to adopt policies of data exfiltration, and also to build a tech totalitarian state on the back of people’s data.

Kearns: There are two big issues that changed the way that Britain, and particularly the parliament, thinks. The first is the increased awareness of human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party: Tibet, Hong Kong, and the utterly appalling human rights abuses and genocide in Xinjiang. But at the same time, the Huawei decision was the big changing point where people realized that there was a desire to create dependency on the Chinese Communist Party in order to weaken us on the world stage. (Editor’s note: In 2017, China enacted cybersecurity legislation requiring individuals and organizations that gather information to cooperate with related government authorities.)

Kearns: I would say that we overall are very united when it comes to China and that we all agree that China, unfortunately, is being overly aggressive, and that it does pose a threat to our values and the international rules-based system. I think the disagreement is where and how we make clear to China that we will not allow them to pursue a hostile foreign policy, and how we best make that happen.

Kearns: I think it is right that James Cleverly travels to China to have discussions. It is more important to be in the same room violently disagreeing than to not be in the same room and to see real-world violence that affects civilians and those who should be protected. I think he should also be making it very clear that we have red lines, and so far that hasn't been successfully communicated.

Hankyoreh: In the Integrated Review Refresh released by the UK government in March, the UK defined China as “an epoch-defining and systemic challenge with implications for almost every area of government policy and the everyday lives of British people.” Do you agree?

Kearns: We need to recognize that the threats we face, unfortunately, are systemic against the whole of our government, and therefore, we need a whole government response.

Hankyoreh: It seems the UK government’s view on China is similar to the US definition of China. Is the UK now breaking with China and effectively leaning towards the US?

Kearns: The UK and the US are the two closest partners of any countries in the world. So this is not about breaking — this is about sticking with a partner we’ve always had. And we will continue to have a very close relationship with the US.

Hankyoreh: China is the UK’s fourth-largest trading partner. It accounts for 6.5% of the UK's total trade. China remains an important market for the UK. Does the UK intend to expand economic cooperation with China in the future?

Kearns: I support further trade with China but not in areas that are of security significance, or where there is a risk to our critical national infrastructure.

Hankyoreh: British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly mentioned the UK’s position on China is “to manage risks.” This sounds similar to the EU Commissioner Von der Leyen’s proposal of “de-risking” as the EU’s China policy. Would you say the positions are similar?

Kearns: I don't think the EU itself has a shared position on China. It is made up of a number of countries that have very different relationships with China. But the UK of course, has some agreement with the EU on China, particularly when it comes to de-risking, but I would not say that it is the same.

By Noh Ji-won, Berlin correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]