The United Kingdom\u2019s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has urged China to be more transparent about what he described as the \u201cbiggest military build-up in peacetime history\u201d, warning secrecy over its military activities carried the risk of a \u201ctragic miscalculation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cleverly devoted his entire keynote speech at a Mansion House banquet in London to China, sketching out his views on a relationship that has long left behind the so-called \u201cgolden era\u201d under former Prime Minister David Cameron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cleverly noted that between 2014 and 2018, China launched new warships exceeding the combined tonnage of the British Royal Navy\u2019s entire active fleet and that it was establishing military bases in the South China Sea as well as beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He urged China to be more open about the \u201cdoctrine and intent behind its military expansion\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTransparency is surely in everyone\u2019s interests and secrecy can only increase the risk of tragic miscalculation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also warned of the potential \u201ccatastrophic\u201d effects of any conflict over Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo country could shield itself from the repercussions. Distance would offer no protection from this catastrophic blow to the global economy \u2013 and least China\u2019s most of all. I shudder to contemplate the human and financial ruin that would follow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s essential that no party takes unilateral action to change the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China has not ruled out the use of force to secure unification and this month conducted a series of war games after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy on a stopover in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beijing views Tsai, who was first elected in 2016, as a \u201cseparatist\u201d who wants \u201cindependence\u201d. She says it should be for the people of Taiwan to decide their future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cleverly also expressed \u201crevulsion\u201d at China\u2019s treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang province, where the United Nations said last year that Beijing may have committed crimes against humanity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are not going to let what [ha]s happened in Xinjiang drop or be brushed aside,\u201d he said, without elaborating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n