Britain’s Relations with China Under New Labour: Engagement and Repulsion?

Abstract

The Labour Party came to power just a few weeks before the formal hand back of Hong Kong from British to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997. In his first years as Prime Minister Tony Blair embraced China in a relationship based on the principle of ‘engagement’. Difficult issues were meant to be confronted, but the broad thrust of the relationship was positive. After China’s entry into the WTO in 2001, however, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) embarked on an era of accelerated internationalization and economic growth. It overtook the British economy in size in 2005, Germany’s in 2006 and, in 2010, moved into second place, usurping Japan. China’s rapid rise has unsettled policy-makers far beyond the shores of the UK. For example, its aggressively self-interested behaviour over the climate change negotiations at Copenhagen in December 2009 vividly raised the question of what multilateral framework can effectively deal with the risks and opportunities of a rising power, with a radically different political system to both the US, UK and other countries in the European Union (EU). After 1997, therefore, the UK carefully needed to refine, clarify and pragmatically choose key areas to cooperate with the PRC as the latter expanded its economic power, and its external influences.