On Reflection | Boris Johnson is testing China with Britain’s foreign policy ambiguities

On Tuesday this week, in the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately altered the famous quotation from his unfortunate pre-war predecessor, Neville Chamberlain. He argued that Britain should not be constrained by a “cramped” regional policy and that among other goals, Britain would now see a “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific, that huge slice of Asia from Karachi to Wellington, in its foreign policy.

The rhetoric was to welcome the publication of the UK’s 114-page Integrated Review on Foreign and Security policy, over a year in the planning. Surprising those who expected a document full of Brexit braggadocio, the review is a sober and sensible document which clarifies that the UK wants to cooperate with its traditional allies.

Yet it is the sections on Asia that have the greatest potential to reset the foreign policy that has marked Britain as a European power for the past half-century.

First, it sets the direction of travel with China. Johnson has come under pressure within his own Conservative Party to take a confrontational stance with Beijing, and at least some politicians have been disappointed that he did not declare a new Cold War.

Britain will take sensible measures to enhance its domestic security, including more surveillance of access to military technology, and it will continue to defend liberal values by speaking out firmly on Hong Kong and Xinjiang.