The Tension Between Interests And Identity: A Study Of Britain's China Policy In The "Golden Age"

"Interests first" has long been a central concern of the UK's foreign policy.Since the end of the second world war,UK has been pursuing this principle in its dealings with China.With the rise of China,UK increasingly valued its partnership with China and made great efforts to expand and deepen its economic and trade cooperation with China.In October 2015,Xi Jinping paid a state visit to the UK which ushered in the prosperity of the “gloden era” between China and the UK.The political reaction reached a new high level.In 2018,during the visit to China,Theresa May hailed the“gloden era”,and said she was optimistic about the potential bilateral economic and trade ties.However,it is hard to hide differences within a partnership,in addition to interests,Britain's identity also plays an important role in its China policy.In pursuit of national interests represented more by economic interests,and the typical national identity as a great western power,there are often two “political and economic”manifestations in the exchanges with China.Precisely,Britain wants to obtain the maximum economic benefits from China but at the same time,also wants to chase the identity of the western great powers,which make the country stand firmly with its alienation and opposite to China in some specific foreign affairs.In recent years,the tension between the two has come up more and more frequently in Britain's China policy.It has been nearly five years since the “golden age”,during which the UK has experienced the Brexit referendum,the rotation of national leaders and the ups and downs of Brexit affairs.In terms of the policy towards China,the overall trend of maintaining close cooperative relations with China formed during Cameron's second term has not changed significantly,but there are frequent conflicts and differences between the two countries,and most are British interference and intervention in China affairs.Among them,the south China sea issue and Xinjiang issue are particularly typical.In the former one,the UK always acts as the defender of international rules and order,combing with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region to exert heavypressure on China,and aims to intervene in the south China sea in a high-profile.On the issue of Xinjiang,Britain has repeatedly used various multilateral diplomatic occasions to criticize China's practices in Xinjiang,citing the western traditional liberal values of “human rights above sovereignty”.From the perspective of these two representative issues,the UK prefers to ignore the objective reality of the sovereignty over the south China sea and Xinjiang,and internationalize the China's domestic issues.And,at the same time,UK utilized its status as a great western power and the transformation of the national policy after Brexit,to intervene in a random way.In terms of industrial cooperation involving important economic interests,Britain has never wavered in the principle of obtaining material benefits through cooperation with China.In particular,in the fields of finance,education,new energy and communication technology,the intensity and breadth of cooperation between the UK and China have significantly increased in the past five years.The UK has made great efforts to increase cooperation with China in attracting investment from Chinese enterprises,accelerating the entry of British technical services into the Chinese market,and promoting the export of higher education.However,it must be acknowledged that Britain's identity as a “great western power” has a deep historical origin,and this identity pursuit has not changed even now Britain's absolute strength has declined.Therefore,the tension in Britain's cooperation with China based on the pursuit of identity and interests may exist for a long time.