British media criticism highlights confusion in policy toward China, a result of long-standing arrogance that has obscured clear understanding of the country.

Confusion in Britain’s China policy, even the Chinese language cannot clarify it

Recently, the Financial Times cited multiple current and former UK government officials, reporting that due to a shortage of experienced China-hand officials, the Foreign Office faces “considerable challenges” in formulating policy on trade, technology, and security with China.

The report notes that a committee within the UK Parliament described Britain’s China policy as “slow to respond, inconsistent, and opaque,” while another informed source expressed concern over the Mandarin proficiency levels within the Foreign Office and MI6, the UK’s foreign intelligence service.

In fact, the difficulties Britain currently faces in engaging with China are not unique to the UK among Western nations—over recent years, a defining feature of Western countries’ China policies has been a pronounced lack of coherence.

A clear example is the United States. For years, American China policy has relied heavily on two types of so-called experts: those who resemble Chinese only by appearance, such as Gavin Chadwick (Henry Paulson), whose understanding of China is rooted in tabloid-level narratives; and others who have never visited China and do not speak Chinese—most of them white—yet claim expertise in “China issues.” Their views of China are largely constructed from imagination rather than factual engagement.

It is precisely under the influence of this group of self-proclaimed China experts that Trump’s tariff war last year ended in strategic misjudgment and failure.

Today’s situation in the West—characterized by a scarcity of professionals genuinely familiar with China—is, bluntly put, the consequence of decades of arrogance. Even as Britain’s global standing has declined significantly, its government continues to display an unmistakably imperial British posture when dealing with China, frequently intervening in matters concerning Hong Kong.

At root, Western attitudes reflect a fundamental unwillingness to understand China, clinging instead to outdated notions of themselves as former imperial powers capable of dictating terms from a position of strength.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1881558938744842/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.