The video examines the escalating tension between Britain and China, highlighting radical shifts in their diplomatic relations. Where once Britain seemed to embrace a prosperous partnership with China, recent political decisions, such as banning Huawei 5G components and reacting to Beijing's national security law imposed on Hong Kong, indicate growing discord. The UK's suspension of an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, adding it to an arms embargo, and China's subsequent denouncement and threat of retaliation are core issues discussed.

The discussion includes perspectives from international figures, exploring the implications of Britain's alignment with a more US-centric stance against China's growing global influence. Samantha Power and other experts weigh in on how China's assertive diplomacy and dependency on its exports create complex challenges for diplomatic, economic, and security cooperation. They discuss whether countries like Britain can maintain economic partnerships while addressing security threats and human rights concerns.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. extradition [ˌɛkstrəˈdɪʃən] - (noun) - The process of handing over an individual from one jurisdiction to another for criminal prosecution or punishment. - Synonyms: (deportation, repatriation, surrender)

After banning Huawei 5G components, the UK government today responded to the imposition of Beijing's national security law on Hong Kong by suspending an extradition treaty with the territory and adding it to an arms embargo.

2. bluster [ˈblʌstər] - (noun) - Loud, aggressive, or indignant talk with little effect. - Synonyms: (boasting, bravado, bombast)

But although there's been bluster, there have been few specifics.

3. fraught [frɔːt] - (adjective) - Causing or affected by great anxiety or stress. - Synonyms: (tense, anxious, distressed)

Things have now become fraught between Britain and China.

4. vis-à-vis [ˌviːzəˈviː] - (preposition) - In relation to; with regard to. - Synonyms: (regarding, concerning, with respect to)

...administration to pull the UK into a transatlantic alliance that then hardens the whole Europe America position vis a vis China.

5. escalation [ˌɛskəˈleɪʃən] - (noun) - A rapid increase; a rise, particularly in the context of creating conflict. - Synonyms: (intensification, rise, increase)

The pressure is building and where not so long ago, diplomats were heralding a golden era in relations, things have now become fraught between Britain and China.

6. hubristic [hjuːˈbrɪstɪk] - (adjective) - Excessively proud or self-confident. - Synonyms: (arrogant, conceited, overconfident)

But I have to say, using the term golden era always struck me as hubristic.

7. amicably [ˈæmɪkəbli] - (adverb) - In a friendly and peaceable manner. - Synonyms: (cordially, agreeably, harmoniously)

And I think that this is something that also could be harmed. So while we're hoping that China has learned that trade wars are really harmful to both sides, it would probably be the most effective way in demonstrating to the UK that China is unhappy with its actions.

8. coalition [ˌkoʊəˈlɪʃən] - (noun) - An alliance for combined action, especially a temporary one between different parties forming a government or states. - Synonyms: (alliance, union, partnership)

It has proven a very unreliable partner, not only in Europe, but also in places like Korea and Japan. And what we need right now, given China's assertiveness and its preparedness to bully, to intimidate, and to use its vast economic prowess for its own ends, we need a democratic coalition that's prepared to coordinate and to fight back.

9. naivety [naɪˈiːvəti] - (noun) - Lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment. - Synonyms: (innocence, simplicity, ignorance)

We've got to accept that there are more options than just liberal naivety or cold war.

10. modus vivendi [ˈmoʊdəs vɪˈvɛndi] - (noun) - An arrangement or agreement allowing conflicting parties to coexist peacefully, either indefinitely or until a final settlement is reached. - Synonyms: (truce, compromise, arrangement)

But you're right that this dance between collaboration, on the one hand, on issues like climate change, figuring out how to get some kind of modus vivendi on cyber threats that exist, cooperating on terrorism, we need to do all of that with China

UK-China relations - A turning point in global foreign policy? - BBC Newsnight

The pressure is building and where not so long ago, diplomats were heralding a golden era in relations. Things have now become fraught between Britain and China. After banning Huawei 5G components, the UK government today responded to the imposition of Beijing's national security law on Hong Kong by suspending an extradition treaty with the territory and adding it to an arms embargo. We will stand up for our values and we will hold China to its international obligations. China's response to recent British steps has been to denounce it as interference and threaten unspecified retaliation. We urge the UK not to go further down this wrong path and avoid further damaging Chinese British relations. I'd also like to add that China will firmly counterattack any interference in its internal affairs.

But although there's been bluster, there have been few specifics. And, of course, exporting to the UK remains in China's interest. I've seen ambassadors, the Wolf Warrior ambassadors, which have been out there giving a hard time to the French governments and so on, were not visible. And I think it was noticeable that they're trying to de-escalate this right now. I think they do not want to give more ammunition for the Trump administration to pull the UK into a transatlantic alliance that then hardens the whole Europe America position vis a vis China. Five years ago, things were very different. Far from pressure, the relationship was characterized by a friendly visit to the pub for Xi Jinping and an ambitious plan to make the City of London a hub for Chinese financial transactions.

Now Beijing may look to trade to show its displeasure with Downing Street. Potentially, the UK could be harmed through its banking interest. There's a lot of exposure by HSBC and Standard Charter, which are really large banks, to Hong Kong and also to China. And I think that this is something that also could be harmed. So while we're hoping that China has learned that trade wars are really harmful to both sides, it would probably be the most effective way in demonstrating to the UK that China is unhappy with its actions.

So what about the golden era, when Chancellor George Osborne toured China drumming up business and the government pinned its hopes on a major expansion of China trade? The Chinese currency, the renminbi, is not terribly well known in Britain at the moment, but I think over my lifetime, it's going to become almost as familiar as the dollar, and I want British businesses involved in trading it and investing it. Right. Does any of that optimism remain? There was this sense that the Chinese were using the British a little bit. But I have to say, using the term golden era always struck me as hubristic. And a hostage to fortune. Given the fact that China was never going to cease being a Communist Party led government, and that meant that notions of human rights were always going to be fundamentally different. And therefore striking this up as a kind of close friendship, almost a special relationship, struck me as overreach.

Surveying recent Chinese diplomacy. You can hardly accuse them of rushing into things, so they'll be weighing up in Beijing what action to take in retaliation for Britain's shift. One thing is clear, though, that the end of the so-called golden era in diplomacy and the movement of the UK much closer to the US's tough position are unwelcome developments for China that look set to continue regardless who wins November's US presidential election.

Tonight, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to London. He's been praising the UK's position and urging us to keep up the pressure. He'll be having meetings with Tory MP's of the China research Group as well as government officials. That was Mark Urban. Well, joining us now from Boston, the ambassador Samantha Power, whose new book, the Education of an Idealist, traces her journey to become President Obama's ambassador to the UN.

We'll also speak shortly to the former Conservative leader Ian Duncan Smith and Richard Graham, who chairs the all parliamentary China group. Ambassador Power, if I can start with you, how do you know we won't regret this? China's already threatened resolute response was their term, with very few details. Well, I think it was very, very likely the UK government would have regretted going forward with Huawei and the 5G network, and that's why the decision was made as it was. So there's no question that China will seek to retaliate in some form.

We've seen the penalties that they've exacted on Australia, on beef and on barley in the wake of Australia's initiative to launch an investigation at the World Health Organization on the coronavirus. So you can expect something. But I do think China's aware that it is overstepping, or at least some in the Chinese Communist Party appear to be alert to the fact that the intimidation approach, the bullying approach, the retaliatory approach, is a fast way to lose friends and to mobilize coalitions in opposition to what you're seeking to do internationally for a long time.

Excuse me. Go ahead. I was going to say, given what you're saying, you must be impressed with your own countries, the Trump administration's leadership on this now and what they appear to have done in terms of bringing us with them. I don't think it was the Trump administration's leadership, maybe that was a factor. You'd have to ask Prime Minister Johnson. But I do think China's own actions, the COVID up, the lack of transparency on the coronavirus, again, the campaign of bullying, this wolf warrior diplomacy that was just referenced, and the reneging on China's word as it relates to Hong Kong and the abuses that are going to follow.

I think a lot of assurances were made by Huawei that the Chinese government wouldn't be interfering. But this is a company that has to act on the orders under Chinese national security law, on the orders of Beijing. And we know how those orders can change, as they have in the Hong Kong context. So I think it was really London looking and seeing how Chinese actions were changing over time, how much more aggressive in such an accelerated timeframe, China is becoming in seeking again to leverage its economic and its technological prowess to secure its own security objectives, which would have left the UK in a really difficult spot.

Let me ask you, then, where this leads us. I raised the question, can you be half friends with China? Once you've been in bed, you don't go back to holding hands. So I wonder where that leaves the countries economically, diplomatically. It's very hard to see where you have a middle ground. Well, I have some sympathy for the United Kingdom right now, especially because the democratic world is very divided. It's no secret that the Trump administration, while rightly putting pressure on governments around the Huawei 5G issue, has really not nurtured alliances, to say the least.

It has proven a very unreliable partner, not only in Europe, but also in places like Korea and Japan. And what we need right now, given China's assertiveness and its preparedness to bully, to intimidate, and to use its vast economic prowess for its own ends, we need a democratic coalition that's prepared to coordinate and to fight back. But you're right that this dance between collaboration, on the one hand, on issues like climate change, figuring out how to get some kind of modus vivendi on cyber threats that exist, cooperating on terrorism, we need to do all of that with China.

At the same time, we compete and we confront in the context of steps like that, which they've taken in Hong Kong and like what they're doing internally to the Uyghurs. And so we will be stronger if we can pool our resources and our weight. And unfortunately, Trump's more transactional approach, which is sort of assumes that other countries will be there when the United States needs them, doesn't really make the worthy investment that we need in a kind of democratic coalition that would make the UK feel more joined right now as if it was in a phalanx.

Samantha Power, I'm going to come back to you a little later, but let me turn to Richard Graham. Is that possible? Is it possible to go back to having all that cooperation, then, on climate change and on global treaties and all the rest of it when you're in this position? I think some of it is possible, yes. I mean, there was a journalist yesterday who wrote that. To be in Washington today is to see the US slide into open conflict with China with eerily little debate. And we've got to do better than that.

We've got to accept that there are more options than just liberal naivety or cold war, and we can do it. I do think the ambassador is correct to have raised the importance of building coalitions, the coalition of the willing, so that where you do need to confront or disagree, you have a stronger group of nations doing that together. Were we showing liberal naivety? I mean, is that what the last decade was about, you'd consider. No, I don't think so, because I think the one country, two systems formula for Hong Kong was amazingly successful for 20 years.

There was one moment when Philip Hammond called it out on the arrest of the bookseller, and now there's the second moment in terms of the security law, which they couldn't get through in Hong Kong. And the question now is, do we want to still try and bind together as much self-interest of Hong Kong, China and Britain to make one country, two systems work in the areas where it can do, or do we want to really say that it's failed and pull out our judges from the court of final appeal and all the rest of it? And I think it's in our interest, personally, to watch very closely to see how China implements failure.

How can you not say it's failed, though, when they've brought in unilaterally this appalling authoritarian law that cracks down on the very people fighting for their freedoms that we should be protecting? You can't sit back and say, that's fine, you interpret it as you want. No, indeed. And that's why we've got to try and hold them very closely to account, because if they are going to implement it in the ways that are perfectly possible to do, that would be a disaster for Hong Kong. But you can't put people to account once they're part of your infrastructure, once they're part of your nuclear, once they're part of your oil, once they're part of your trains, Harrods, Heathrow, all the rest of it, to the tune of billions of pounds.

So I think that's where I would disagree. I think it's very important that we learn how to co-evolve. China is going to be there for a long time to come. Its values are different from ours. The US sees it as a competitor. The UK is not a competitor, either to the US or China. We have to learn to exist with both of them and actually to be able to have a relationship that enables us to say difficult things while at the same time working very closely with them on lots of.

Richard, that might be the naivety coming in there. If China gets angry, they turn off the taps or they mess with the electricity system or they hack our phones or our systems. I mean, why would you not conceive, after everything you've heard, that they could be a major security threat? So of course there could be. But I think we should try and assess, you see what they did. I mean, what powers are saying about Australia and the beef tariffs. I mean, it doesn't take long, does it? So I think what we have to assess is where the balance of interest is in every sphere, in every individual issue.

I think it's very much in China's interest to work closely with us, with EDF Energy, who are the major equity partner on the nuclear power side. And it's very important that we don't rush to decisions on things like TikTok just because we assume that they are an agent of the Chinese state. We want to be open for foreign investment, and there is lots of investment that is valuable and helpful and creates jobs. Ok, let me go to Ian Duncan Smith. And on that question, do you think we should go even further than Dominic Raab went today? Ian? Well, I think this is a process and it depends very much on how China reacts.

And to give you an example, I agree with the ambassador that spoke. I've formed an organization called the Inter Parliamentary Alliance on China. We have left and right involved in that. So it's not just about conservatives, it's not just about republicans. You know, for example, in America, we've got Senator Menendez and Rubio chairing and we have now 18 countries involved. So a large chunk of European countries, the European Parliament, but also countries in Africa and India, is about to join, as well as Japan.

So we've now done what the ambassador is talking about. And all these countries, all these people, all legislators, share one view, which is there is a problem with China. China's behavior in human rights and China's behavior over Hong Kong. Let me ask you what that means to try and make that happen. And in a practical sense, when you decided that that's what the view is, what does that mean? Richard Graham just raised the question of ticktock. You think it should be banned from Britain now in the way that Huawei is?

I think most of the evidence so far suggests quite clearly the bike dance. The company is as locked to the Chinese authorities as Huawei is. You know, there really isn't very much difference. The Chinese government demands, through their security legislation that all Chinese companies owe complete allegiance to the Chinese state and in that regard, have a responsibility to cooperate to the extreme with the Chinese security services. So that makes them vulnerable. And I think that what we should be doing in the UK, it's not.

You know, we tend to look at this, if you don't mind me saying so, from the UK standpoint, the truth is, this is a problem for the free world right now. So France and Germany are having to make decisions. You know, you've got other countries elsewhere in Europe and in the far east that are all worried about the dominance and the dependency that China has putting people into, given the nature of its regime, this communist government.

So the key thing is to come together. And what I would be asking America tomorrow when I see Mike Pompeo. Yeah. Is to look, okay, America's made its position clear, but America now must work with the UK to create that alliance of the free world. So I'm just trying to get the sense, look, you know, you've got to change, otherwise you're not going to get the business that you thought you would and your economy won't grow. Well, I'm going to put to you some of the points, for example, that Lisa Nandy, who is shadow foreign secretary, who agreed with much that the foreign secretary was saying, but went even further.

She talked about sanctioning four senior individuals, freezing their assets. Would you do those? Do you agree with her on that? Yeah, I think the next phase of this is to look at key officials who have been responsible either for the terrible abuses, and it was the Inter Parliamentary Alliance on China that published the government documentation, the Chinese government documentation that showed that they were involved in the sterilization, forced sterilization of Uyghur women, where the population has collapsed amongst the Uyghurs and the incarceration. So I agree with her on that.

The next stage is to look at those officials who have benefited and are able to go here, there and everywhere and make their investments. And the time is for the UK and other countries, as a ban, would you ban those officials from coming to the UK? I would look to sanction them in line with the new magnicti regulations, and I've urged the secretary of state to do the same. So we agree on that. Yes. Which is why it's not a conservative issue. It is an issue for left and right in the free world.

Let me ask you, going back to Samantha Power, Britain's at the moment trying to work out which axis I suppose it's facing coming out of the EU, shutting off China. President Trump promised Britain a beautiful free trade deal by the end of the year. Do you think a different administration, let's say if that were Joe Biden as premiership, would change that around, would it be different?

Well, first of all, I think, I know there's some concern in Prime Minister Johnson's inner circle that he would lose the great personal relationship he has with President Trump. But recall in advance of the British election that Prime Minister Johnson wasn't exactly advertising that friendship when he was seeking votes, because the British public is really not favorably disposed to President Trump, and that actually limits Prime Minister Johnson and the ruling party's decision space. So in Biden, you have the chance both to have a strong personal relationship and to have the British public on side as the United States and the UK together in this special relationship battle.

These kinds of challenges that we are really confronted with at scale in an entirely new way. On that point, we heard in a Fox News interview yesterday, President Trump refusing publicly to commit to accepting the results of the November election. I think the phrase was, it could be yes, it could be no. So should us voters be worried by that? Yes, they should be deeply alarmed by that and by all of the efforts to disenfranchise voters and to suppress the vote across the country, those efforts are already proceeding.

And indeed, one of the reasons I'm spending a lot of time trying to work to raise money for Vice President Biden so he can offset President Trump's financial advantage is not for the usual reason. It is that in part of buying ads and so forth and portraying the vice president for the leader that he can be, but also to hire lawyers to make sure that. But lawyers are there contesting President Trump and his team's efforts to delegitimate the vote across the country. But President Trump has been laying this predicate for a very long time. And the more his poll numbers drop, the more you hear him talking about potential voter fraud, even though there's no evidence of that having occurred.

Samantha Power in this country and Richard Graham, thank you all very much indeed. Thanks for joining us this evening.

Politics, Economics, Innovation, Uk-China Relations, Us-Uk Relations, Global Diplomacy, Bbc Newsnight