We need to rebuild relations with China – Bill Carmichael

Purchase of new 5G equipment from Chinese tech giant Huawei will be banned after December 31, says Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.Purchase of new 5G equipment from Chinese tech giant Huawei will be banned after December 31, says Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.
Purchase of new 5G equipment from Chinese tech giant Huawei will be banned after December 31, says Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.
A FEW years back I sent a group of student journalists to cover a large and rowdy demonstration against the then Sheffield Hallam MP Nick Clegg.

At the time our country was ruled by a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition and Clegg, as leader of the Lib Dems, was the Deputy Prime Minister.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

What had angered students and other activists was that Clegg had promised faithfully, during the 2010 election campaign, to oppose any increase in student tuition fees and to scrap them altogether.

But once in power alongside their Conservative allies, the Lib Dems 
had promptly abandoned that solemn pledge.

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Oliver Dowden makes a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, London, that purchase of new 5G equipment from Chinese tech giant Huawei will be banned after December 31 and added that Huawei equipment already in the UK's 5G networks must be removed by 2027.Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Oliver Dowden makes a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, London, that purchase of new 5G equipment from Chinese tech giant Huawei will be banned after December 31 and added that Huawei equipment already in the UK's 5G networks must be removed by 2027.
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Oliver Dowden makes a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, London, that purchase of new 5G equipment from Chinese tech giant Huawei will be banned after December 31 and added that Huawei equipment already in the UK's 5G networks must be removed by 2027.

It was a disastrous U-turn for the party and marked the beginning of the end of Clegg’s political career – although he appears to have done quite well for himself since, becoming a well-paid spin doctor for Facebook.

The Lib Dems have never fully recovered to this day.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But among my group of student journalists were a couple of Chinese nationals and they were genuinely shocked and appalled by what they had witnessed.

I remember one saying to the effect: “The crowd were shouting very rude things. Surely you can’t say those things about the Deputy Prime Minister. Won’t they go to jail?”

Boris Johnson during a visit to China in 2013 when he was Mayor of London.Boris Johnson during a visit to China in 2013 when he was Mayor of London.
Boris Johnson during a visit to China in 2013 when he was Mayor of London.

I reassured her that the protesters would not go to jail and what they saw, although possibly ugly and unruly, was actually a healthy sign of a functioning democratic society.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I still think that today. Thank God we live in a country where you can shout rude things about senior politicians without facing unpleasant consequences – although the way the woke cultural revolution, and the intolerant cult of cancel culture, is going, I don’t think we can take any of our liberties for granted.

The point of this anecdote is to illustrate the intense contrast between China and the West. In terms of history, politics, culture, legal systems, the media and pretty much everything else we couldn’t be more different while remaining on the same planet.

And I believe that these differences help to explain the deteriorating relationship between the West and China and increasing antagonism over the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, the power struggle in Hong Kong and the Huawei 5G ban.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

At the risk of generalisation, but after years of close observation, I would say that Chinese people tend to be intensely patriotic and proud – rightly in my view – of their long history and rich culture.

Many value collective attributes such as stability and security, sometimes at the expense of individual qualities such as personal freedom, more highly than often found in the West. It is common in China to put the needs of society ahead of your own.

And then comes the concept of “Mianzi”, a notoriously difficult notion for Westerners to grasp, involving a cultural understanding of respect, honour and social standing and often translated into English as “face”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

To illustrate, I once worked with a young Chinese journalist who had uncovered what appeared to be a clear case of corruption involving the misuse of building permits in her home city.

I thought it a fantastic story with a clear public interest in publishing. But she was reluctant to write it because of the sense of collective shame – or loss of face – it would bring to her community. She never published the story.

I think I can detect the same misunderstandings and confusion played out on the international stage today. Perhaps one reason the Chinese were initially tardy in sharing details of the Covid-19 outbreak was the collective shame – or loss of face – about the origins of the pandemic in Wuhan.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In Hong Kong we can see an uncomprehending clash between the desire for individual freedom and the need for collective security.

With the Huawei controversy we see a country stung by the collective shame – or loss of face – of its major technology company being rejected in the West.

I know from my many Chinese anglophile friends that current disputes between our two countries, and the deteriorating relationship, brings them great pain, as it does me.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I hope this is a temporary blip and things will soon improve, with a mutual attempt at understanding our differences leading to a firm and lasting friendship.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.