As China and Russia and India build closer links in Britain there are more pressing matters than strategic relevance and a coherent China policy: ministerial musical chairs, another governing party talking to itself, and the ‘Mandelson Distraction’.
The British are deluged with sanctimonious propaganda about the need to save the planet, and China goes on burning coal.
“I’m very, very positive about China, but I’m very, very negative about the Chinese Communist Party.”
Three decades on, the regime’s character has not changed – but its tactics have become more sophisticated.