Britain's China Engagement Is a Message to America

The Victorian statesman Viscount Palmerston’s definition of undogmatic foreign policy remains as pertinent today as when first formulated in an 1840 speech. “Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.” Out of tact, Palmerston’s name will not have been on UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s lips during his four-day courtesy call on Xi Jinping “to build a more sophisticated relationship,” but that’s still the name of the diplomatic game.

China’s nationalists date the the start of its “century of humiliation” as the First Opium War from 1839 to 1842, brought to a winning end by Palmerston after he forced the Qing dynasty to open to world trade — including narcotics from British-ruled India. The Chinese Communist Party justifies its dictatorial rule today by pointing to this era of domestic weakness and foreign invasions.