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Alex Lo

This has to be the quote of the year. It’s so wrong and laughable at so many levels, not the least is how Little England still thinks it’s Great Britain.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to the challenges faced by our friends and partners on the other side of the world,” Keir Starmer said.
“My message today is clear: This is just the beginning of our commitment to the Indo-Pacific.”
OK, Mr Prime Minister, did you say “the other side of the world”? Why is that any of your business? And with what do you propose to do that? Your HMS Prince of Wales?
The awesome allegedly state-of-the-state aircraft carrier – first launched in December 2017 after years of delay and being over budget – will be key to this new British gunboat venture. Perhaps Asians, among them many formerly colonised subjects, already feel safer, while China will be humbled and put in its place.
The Prince of Wales is best known for the litany of problems that led the UK media to quote its sailors as believing that it’s “jinxed”.
It hasn’t exactly been the pride of the Royal Navy, more an enduring symbol of hasty politicking, grandstanding and poor forward planning.
It has had major leaks that led to flooding. In 2022, it broke down off the Isle of Wight hours after setting sail.
Engineers had to fix a malfunctioning 33-tonne starboard propeller, which took nine months. This was followed by a “misaligned” port propeller. The repairs bill so far? £25 million (HK$252 million).
To threaten the Chinese, the Britons will have to sail the Prince of Wales to the other side of the world first, maintain a presence there and make sure it’s still functional. Together with the HMS Queen Elizabeth, British taxpayers have already sunk £7 billion and counting.
As Starmer vowed to recommit the navy to Asia, the UK news media reported that an unnamed Royal Navy nuclear submarine came so dangerously close to running out of food and supplies that rationing had to be introduced, while those off-duty were told to sleep and limit movement to conserve energy.
The prolonged six-month patrol of the Vanguard-class sub was made necessary because a replacement was unavailable, while a plan for resupply at sea never happened for undisclosed reasons, according to British news reports.
Starmer said he would bolster the Royal Navy’s presence in the Indian and Pacific oceans. It’s not clear who he had in mind when he referred to “our friends and partners” calling for salvation from Britain. Maybe the Chinese should exercise their “freedom of navigation” by sailing up and down the North Sea, no?
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has declared a clear preference for a balanced diplomacy over senselessly escalating military tensions in its own backyard. The Philippines prefers to growl and claw at the Chinese behind the United States and has no need for the Britons. Tiny island nations in the South Pacific are either US protectorates or have long relied on next-door Australia for protection and economic relief.
India has made it clear it has no interest in joining the Western alliance, military or otherwise. Prime Minister Narendra Modi just stood side by side with Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, who was hosting the Brics summit last week in the Russian city of Kazan. It would be hard for him to send a clearer message.
Both Modi and Xi are now trying to mend fences after the two sides settled a border dispute in the Himalayas stemming from a deadly hand-to-hand clash between their two armies in 2020.
So exactly whose call of duty is Starmer answering? America’s, of course. It’s the same call that his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau was answering when his country sent a warship this month to accompany another freedom of navigation joint naval patrol with the Americans, who conduct the highly provocative exercise practically every month.
It’s not clear whose freedom of navigation is not being protected according to Washington. But the US demands a junior partner’s navy to contribute to the exercise periodically to make a pretence at coalition building. The Royal Canadian Navy is even more underfunded than the British one and probably in worse shape.
One suspects, though, that Starmer may talk big but will ultimately do little. He has neither the will nor the resources to do otherwise. The already controversial British budget about to be released this week is trying to fill a gaping fiscal hole. But he knows he needs to humour the imperious Americans.
You do wonder, though, if Starmer might show greater courage by declaring: “We cannot turn a blind eye to the challenges faced by our own citizens – the rising poverty, homelessness, crumbling municipalities and racial riots, from the inadequate provision of basic welfare and schooling to the once-respected but now-failing National Health Service.”
Nay, we have to tell the Chinese on the other side of the world what’s what. It’s much easier to be inventive against Beijing than to face the harsh social realities back home, let alone try to fix them.


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Opinion

World Opinion

Britain’s prime minister would rather be inventive against Beijing than address harsh social realities back home


Britain’s prime minister would rather be inventive against Beijing than address harsh social realities back home.


My Take

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

My Take | Starmer promises to show China who’s the boss in Asia

Britain’s prime minister would rather be inventive against Beijing than address harsh social realities back home