“Britain gets more respect from China and the Commonwealth by acting independently” of America and the West, writes Singapore’s former foreign minister in a guest essay
visited my old college in Cambridge for a special lunch. The college looked better than ever. But when I asked afterwards how to travel to Great Yarmouth, where my son was interning as a junior doctor, few could help me. Great Yarmouth is only 118km away but getting there requires a slow, rickety train ride. There was hardly a foreigner in the seaside town, though the inhabitants were friendly to me.
When the British people voted in favour of Brexit in 2016, my heart leapt for them. I was familiar with the economic arguments against Brexit and aware that they would have to pay a heavy price. There is, however, a free-spiritedness in the British people which was never fully at ease in Europe. For centuries, British foreign policy was to prevent any power on the continent from becoming too dominant.
Britain also needs to take a long view of its relationship with China. The return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 was unavoidable but painful; China’s introduction of the National Security Law in 2020 even more so; but life goes on and Hong Kong will remain important to Britain. Hong Kongers still cherish their links to Britain; Beijing may not like that but it will tolerate such nostalgia if bilateral relations are in good repair. Britain’s economic interests in Hong Kong are not insubstantial.