China has become something of a personal cause for the Chancellor. He spent a month touring the country 20 years ago, after university, and has visited repeatedly in opposition and in government. I (the reporter on this piece) accompanied him on this latest tour, which took him from the power of Beijing to the hi-tech of Shenzhen, the futuristic enormity of Guangzhou, and the cultural vibrancy of Hong Kong. To reinforce some of his political interests: opponents of HS2 will note that he pointedly travelled on China’s booming high speed network and posed in front of the on-board speedometer as it reached 300kph (186mph). On the occasions when he escaped formalities to wander along street markets to buy presents for his children, his tour also allowed him to see the extraordinary social and cultural advances that China is going through. Mr Osborne was evidently galvanised by what he had seen and learnt, and itching to take on those who caution against engaging with the world’s largest dictatorship. Throughout, it seemed, China’s success stood as a reproach to Britain’s loss of ambition. Everywhere he looked he saw modern China marked by skyscrapers and a frenzy of building. “You cannot fail to be staggered by the scale of the economic progress and the building that’s happening all around you. It’s astonishing,” he said. “I feel both energised by a trip like this because there’s so much more Britain can be doing; I also feel a bit like, my God, we’ve really got to up our game as a country, and the whole of the West has to understand what is happening here in Asia.” He adds: “There has been at times in Britain a sense of defeatism. You saw that in the late 1970s when everyone was resigned to the decline of empire and Britain being the sick man of Europe. “You saw that [defeatism] three years ago when everyone thought we couldn’t tackle our debt problems and the financial crisis had relegated us to a second-rate power.” “China is not a sweatshop. Yes, it has cheap manufacturing by people on low wages, but are now global forces for innovation and design.” “We have to be very clear that China is absolutely determined to follow its national self-interest, that it’s run by a communist party, that there is in the Western sense no freedom of the press, and human rights are a big issue.” “Of course you are not going to get people criticising the president of China, because it’s not a democracy. But look beneath that and understand there is a big national discussion going on about the future direction of China and that’s pretty healthy.”
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 11:35:09 +0000
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