China Scraps UK Chancellor’s Visit Over Warship Plan
LONDON (Dispatches) – British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is not going to China this weekend for trade talks, following reports that Beijing scuppered advanced preparations for a meeting after the defense secretary, Gavin Williamson, threatened to deploy a warship in the Pacific.
Hammond was expected to meet the Chinese vice premier, Hu Chunhua, but Treasury sources said the trip was never confirmed, the Guardian reported.
It is believed that there is an internal row brewing between the Treasury and the defense department over Williamson’s remarks, which the former chancellor George Osborne described as a throwback to an era of "gunboat diplomacy”.
The Sun said China had been expected to lift its bans on British poultry and cosmetics not tested on animals, which could have opened up access to markets worth around 10 billion pounds over five years.
A Treasury spokeswoman stopped short of confirming that the trip, preparations for which were reportedly well advanced, had been cancelled. "The chancellor is not travelling to China at this time,” she said. "No trip was ever announced or confirmed.”
Hu reportedly scrapped the plans hours after Williamson announced that the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth would be sent to the Pacific, where Beijing has been involved in a dispute over territorial claims in the South China Sea, for its first operational cruise, expected to be in 2021.
He said the UK was prepared to use lethal force to deter countries that flout international law, in an apparent reference to Chinese expansion.
Last September another British warship, HMS Albion, sailed near islands claimed by China in an effort to demonstrate that the UK does not recognize claims beyond the internationally agreed 12-mile limit. China described the action as provocative.
The Financial Times reported that British officials said the Chinese ambassador had raised Williamson’s apparent threat in a "scheduled call” with the Foreign Office. The paper said that Downing Street had not denied that Beijing had expressed its displeasure with the minister’s speech.
A government official was reported to have branded Williamson’s speech, in which he also claimed Brexit represented an opportunity for Britain to enhance its military threat, as "idiotic”, while the defense secretary was also criticized by Osborne, now the Evening Standard editor, for sending mixed messages.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster that the government appeared unable to decide whether China was an economic partner or a military threat.
"You’ve got the defense secretary engaging in gunboat diplomacy of a quite old-fashioned kind, at the same time as the chancellor of the exchequer and the foreign secretary are going around saying they want a close economic partnership with China.”
Hammond was expected to meet the Chinese vice premier, Hu Chunhua, but Treasury sources said the trip was never confirmed, the Guardian reported.
It is believed that there is an internal row brewing between the Treasury and the defense department over Williamson’s remarks, which the former chancellor George Osborne described as a throwback to an era of "gunboat diplomacy”.
The Sun said China had been expected to lift its bans on British poultry and cosmetics not tested on animals, which could have opened up access to markets worth around 10 billion pounds over five years.
A Treasury spokeswoman stopped short of confirming that the trip, preparations for which were reportedly well advanced, had been cancelled. "The chancellor is not travelling to China at this time,” she said. "No trip was ever announced or confirmed.”
Hu reportedly scrapped the plans hours after Williamson announced that the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth would be sent to the Pacific, where Beijing has been involved in a dispute over territorial claims in the South China Sea, for its first operational cruise, expected to be in 2021.
He said the UK was prepared to use lethal force to deter countries that flout international law, in an apparent reference to Chinese expansion.
Last September another British warship, HMS Albion, sailed near islands claimed by China in an effort to demonstrate that the UK does not recognize claims beyond the internationally agreed 12-mile limit. China described the action as provocative.
The Financial Times reported that British officials said the Chinese ambassador had raised Williamson’s apparent threat in a "scheduled call” with the Foreign Office. The paper said that Downing Street had not denied that Beijing had expressed its displeasure with the minister’s speech.
A government official was reported to have branded Williamson’s speech, in which he also claimed Brexit represented an opportunity for Britain to enhance its military threat, as "idiotic”, while the defense secretary was also criticized by Osborne, now the Evening Standard editor, for sending mixed messages.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster that the government appeared unable to decide whether China was an economic partner or a military threat.
"You’ve got the defense secretary engaging in gunboat diplomacy of a quite old-fashioned kind, at the same time as the chancellor of the exchequer and the foreign secretary are going around saying they want a close economic partnership with China.”