China row: PM’s father urges Boris to ‘stand up’ to Tories accused of ‘cooking up new Cold war’

The Prime Minister’s father has waded into the Tory civil war on China by urging him to ‘stand up’ to the hawks accused of seeking a ‘new Cold War’ with Beijing.

Former MEP Stanley Johnson said it is ‘absolutely vital’ that Britain continues to ‘work very closely’ with the Chinese government ‘even more’ post-Brexit.

The 80-year-old, whose son Boris Johnson was praised by George Osborne for ‘seeing off the hotheads’ last week, rubbished Tory demands that the UK should be tougher despite a year of tensions with China. 

Speaking to Times Radio, he said he was suspicious of a ‘tendency’ among Conservatives to ‘cook up’ a conflict with Beijing, saying that it does not make ‘any sense’ to try to match Beijing ‘weapon for weapon’.

Instead, Mr Johnson Sr called China ‘the key to so many things’ – from climate change to the world economy and the pandemic – and hinted that Tory passions could be ‘redirected’ to Brussels instead.   

‘China is absolutely not a bette noir. It’s the key to so many things,’ the Prime Minister’s father said. ‘In political terms, it’s absolutely vital we work very closely with China. He (the Prime Minister) is right not to write off China at this point – on the contrary, I think he’s right to move to discussions with China, important discussions. 

‘It is inevitable, even more inevitable now that we have left the EU.’

Asked whether the UK should be tougher with Beijing, he went on: ‘Well, I don’t think we’re going to do that. I don’t think there’s any way in which we can match China weapon for weapon for weapon. 

‘I do not think that makes any sense at all, we’ve got to engage with China at an intellectual level. Look at the number of Chinese students at British universities today. Can you imagine the effect on British universities, even the financial effect on British universities, if we had a rupture now with the Chinese? 

‘I mean, a lot of them would just go out of business, that they are so dependent on Chinese students, Chinese research, and so on and so forth. So I feel quite strongly.

‘I would be worried by a tendency in the Tory party to suddenly, you know, cook up… maybe they’ll be distracted by Ursula von der Leyen. We’ll see, maybe their aggressive instincts can be redirected to Brussels at this point in time.’

Mr Johnson Sr met Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming and emailed his worries about coronavirus to British officials in February of last year. 

Accidentally copying in the BBC, the Prime Minister’s father used his personal email address to share an account of the discussion with the environment minister Lord Goldsmith and other government officials.

‘Re the outbreak of coronavirus, Mr Liu obviously was concerned that there had not yet – so he asserted – been direct contact between the PM and Chinese head of state or government in terms of a personal message or telephone call,’ he wrote.

The Chinese Ambassador told him the Prime Minister had not yet directly contacted Beijing, while sources told the BBC Mr Johnson Sr was not acting on behalf or at the request of the British government.

In his interview with Times Radio, Mr Johnson Sr also revealed that he sang The Hippopotamus Song with the Chinese Ambassador during one meeting. 

The environmentalist also said the Prime Minister is wrong to oppose carbon taxes, adding: ‘If it comes to the question of carbon taxes, I think we would absolutely need to go down that route. If the government suddenly said ‘so sorry, we cannot go into the aspect of cross border carbon taxes’, which is fundamental if you’re going to have to deal with climate change, I think I would then stand up.’ 

His intervention comes amid a raging Tory revolt over the Government’s strategy for relations with China after its Integrated Review was published last week.

The security document takes a much softer tone on China than to Russia, saying that although it is an ‘authoritarian state’ it will be ‘an increasingly important partner’.

‘China is an increasingly important partner in tackling global challenges like pandemic preparedness, biodiversity and climate change,’ the report says.

‘We will continue to pursue a positive economic relationship, including deeper trade links and more Chinese investment in the UK.’

Unveiling the document last week, Mr Johnson told MPs that the Government had been at the forefront of criticising Beijing over human rights abuses. 

‘There is no question that China will pose a great challenge for an open society such as ours,’ he said. ‘But we will also work with China where that is consistent with our values and interests.’

Tory defence select committee chief Tobias Ellwood said he had hoped Mr Johnson would take the opportunity to ‘call out’ China for the ‘geo-strategic threat it is’.

Intelligence committee chair Julian Lewis warned that the ‘grasping naivety of the Cameron Osborne years’ towards China ‘still lingers’ in some departments, while Foreign Affairs committee head Tom Tugendhat said the review was only a ‘start’ in rebalancing the UK’s approach.

Former MI6 chief Alex Younger also warned China poses a ‘generational threat’ and the idea it will adopt Western values on freedom and democracy is ‘for the birds’. 

Mark Sedwill, the former Cabinet Secretary, said the UK must be willing to ‘contest, contain, confront’ China when it ‘breaks international norms’ as he warned the Western alliance must show greater unity when challenging Beijing.

The former national security adviser said China is now ‘much more aggressive in its region’ and ‘like all authoritarian regimes, respects strength and unity’.

He said if the West is going to ‘push back effectively’ against ‘unacceptable’ Chinese behaviour then ‘we need to do so with a sense of common purpose across the Western alliance and that has been sadly lacking over the past few years’.

Lord Sedwill was grilled on the UK’s relationship with China during an appearance in front of the House of Lords’ International Relations and Defence Committee.

He told peers that under the leadership of President Xi Jinping China is ‘much more aggressive in its region’ as he cited the ‘crackdown in Hong Kong’ and the ‘appalling treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang’.

He said: ‘We have to, while maintaining the access to the economic opportunities, the imperative to cooperate with China on the big environmental challenges and some security challenges, we must also be able to contest, contain, where necessary confront Chinese behaviour when it breaks international norms.

‘I think we have seen… that is a trend in Western countries’ policy generally, very robustly in the United States, actually robustly here too in my view, Australia as well for example, less so among some of our other allies, but I hope they will bring themselves to the same appreciation of the need to stand in solidarity to contest, confront, contain China’s unacceptable behaviour because when we do have a sense of common purpose then I think that is our best opportunity of influencing it.

‘China, like all countries, like all authoritarian regimes, respects strength and unity among the West and we need to show more of that.’

However, former chancellor George Osborne hit back at Tory hawks as he praised the Prime Minister for ‘seeing off the hotheads’ who he claimed want to start a ‘new Cold War’ with the Chinese government.

The former Evening Standard editor said he sees ‘a lot of continuity’ between the new strategy for relations with China and the ‘golden era’ approach he took when he was in power with David Cameron.

Speaking to the House of Lords’ International Relations and Defence Committee, Mr Osborne said he believes Mr Johnson is correct to recognise the ‘threat’ posed by China while also seeking to ‘engage’ with the country. 

‘China is changing, becoming more assertive, but the question of how you deal with it has not changed,’ the former chancellor said.

‘And that to me is why I think Boris Johnson should be congratulated for seeing off the hotheads who want to launch some new Cold War with China and instead promoting an approach that is realistic about the threat that China poses but also wants to engage in the opportunity.

‘Talks about increasing trade, talks about increasing investment from China and essentially tries to co-opt China rather than confront China and to me that was the approach back then and it is the approach today.’

Mr Osborne said he believed his approach of ‘engaging with China in a more meaningful and deeper relationship that recognised the threat but also sought to try and co-opt China into the international order’ was ‘realistic’.

He added: ‘It was a deeper relationship and frankly reading the Government’s security document that they published yesterday, I see a lot of continuity in what is being proposed now and I very much welcome that.’

Mr Osborne said there ‘have been things that China has done that are not acceptable’ as he mentioned interference in Hong Kong and ‘suppression’ of the Uighur people in Xinjiang province.