Tony Blair has appealed to Western nations to come together to develop a coherent strategy to counter China’s rise as the world’s “second superpower”. Delivering the annual Ditchley Lecture, the former prime minister called for a “strength plus engagement” policy towards Beijing as he warned that the era of Western political and economic dominance was coming to an end. He said Western powers must increase defense spending in order to maintain their military superiority while expanding their “soft power” by building ties with developing countries. At the same time they urgently needed to end the “madness” in their domestic politics and restore “sense and strategy”. “How did Britain get to a point where Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn got to shape our politics for a short but consequential time? Or America in a place where being vaccinated meant political allegiance?’ he said.
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“The madness in our own politics must stop. We cannot afford the luxury of indulging in fantasy. We need to put logic and strategy back in the saddle. And we need to do it urgently.” On China, Sir Tony said it had already caught up with the United States in many areas of technology, while President Xi Jinping had made no secret of his ambition to return Taiwan to Beijing’s rule. At the same time, President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal and unjustified” invasion of Ukraine showed that they could no longer automatically expect major world powers to abide by accepted international norms. “As a result of Putin’s actions, we cannot rely on the Chinese leadership to behave in a way that we would consider rational,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying in the short term that China would attempt to take over Taiwan by force. But we cannot base our policy on the certainty that he would not. “And even leaving aside Taiwan, the reality is that China under Xi is competing for influence and doing so aggressively.” He said Beijing would compete “not just for power, but against our system, our way of governing and living” and that the West must be strong enough to defend its systems and values. “The biggest geopolitical change of this century will come from China, not Russia,” he said. “We are coming to the end of Western political and economic dominance. The world will be at least bipolar and possibly multipolar. “It is the first time in modern history that the East can be on equal terms with the West.” With China – as well as countries such as Russia, Turkey and Iran – pouring resources into the developing world while building strong defense and political ties, Sir Tony said it was important the West did not forget the importance of soft power. “We have a great opportunity. Developing countries prefer Western companies. They are far more skeptical of China’s contracts now than they were a decade ago. They admire the Western system more than we imagine,” he said.
