Foreign Secretary's Indo-Pacific tour, polling on China, British Steel
A Beijing to Britain briefing
Hello,
As you sit down with an espresso to read this Briefing, thousands of officials will be preparing for a critical and widely analysed CPC gathering. Which political giants will be there? Who hasn’t been seen in public for some time? Who’s supposed to be speaking? Who is said to be plotting against who? Which faction is on the ascent? Can this regime successfully pursue its high-growth agenda, or will it succumb to its self-inflicted economic woes? These are just some of the questions veteran journalists, analysts and watchers will consider as they attempt to read the tea leaves to see what’s to come for the party, and ultimately, the country’s future. That’s right - the Conservative Party Conference kicks off today in Birmingham.
Although Parliament was on Recess this week, Global Britain’s charm offensive continued. Two senior Government officials - the Foreign Secretary and the International Trade Secretary - delivered speeches to key regional audiences on opposite sides of the world. Although thematically different, joining them together were explicit mentions of Chinese economic coercion and the need for like-minded partners to work together in economic blocs; Prime Minister Liz Truss’s worldview now reaches across the top of Departments. Despite this, it’s not lost on observers that the Truss vision of Global Britain, based primarily on creating these economic alliances as a vehicle to limit Chinese and Russian access to the global economy, could be undermined by her own approach to Britain’s economy. After all, a crumbling economy is not a useful tool from which to launch foreign policy ambitions. To loosely paraphrase Mike Tyson - everyone has a plan until the economy punches them in the mouth.
Away from the economy and the political rumours swirling Westminster, what have we been keeping a close eye on here at Beijing to Britain headquarters? First, any ripples that come from a comment by Gina Raimondo, the US Secretary of Commerce. During an Atlantic Council conversation, she said that US soldiers have foreign-made video games on their phones that can track their GPS locations, and host Keith Krach then name-checked Tencent. Let’s see if anything comes from this on either side of the Atlantic, given MPs have previously expressed concern over the Chinese giant, and data is a hot topic at the moment. Second, France and Germany have shared their views on the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act. Of particular interest - “consider the creation of a sovereign public/private investment fund, combining equity, loans and guarantees, in order to invest in mining, refinery, primary processing and recycling projects.” Finally, the news that Merck & Co. struck a deal with Chinese state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm “to import and market its antiviral molnupiravir in China”, in what Caixin describes as “a tentative sign the country is considering more foreign Covid-19 medicines.” Let’s hope so.
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