How the UK will be affected by China’s Economic Retaliation

This article is from the Express and it talks about the dangerous economic future lying ahead for the UK due to the fact that the UK has had an increasingly hostile relationship against China recently.

The article starts by saying who has made the warning. The person is Professor Adrian Pabst, the Deputy Director for Social and Political Economy for the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. He warns that when China economically sanctions against the USA, it can have ripple effects on the rest of the world especially the USA’s trading partners. However, it can grow even worse if the UK grows too hostile towards China. Usually, the UK isn’t as harsh as the USA when it comes to economic sanctions against countries like Russia and China. However, the recent removal of the company Huawei from the development of the UK’s 5G system, has increased tensions between the UK and China, and if the UK continues to increase economic hostility, so will China. China is a huge trading partner to the UK, in 5th place, making up 6.8% of all UK imports, and sanctions could have an unbelievably negative effect, which would make the current Covid-19 predicament even worse.

Then the article states that the ambassador of China in the UK said the accusations from the UK on China about human rights’ violations has “seriously poisoned the atmosphere”(worsened relations even more). The ambassador also warned that the UK should not interfere(bring people from Hong Kong to the UK) about internal affairs over Hong Kong “to avoid further damage to the China-UK relationship”. Furthermore, after the UK offered British National passport holders to come to the UK, China threatened to not recognize the BN passport as a legitimate travel document. This would hugely harm UK business and trade with the China, damaging our economy. The article ends by pulling a quote from the ambassador, saying that the UK should follow its own foreign policy rather than be led by the US, and that the UK couldn’t be global without China’s help and provision of opportunity.