Security advisor says time for the ‘West to get some backbone’ over China

The former national security adviser to US President Donald Trump, has spoken out against the West, and said it is time to “get some more backbone.”

Lieutenant General McMaster remarks come as he said the West’s previous approach to political relations with China “was wrong.”

He said it is “time for us to end our self-delusion on the Chinese Communist Party.”

The former National security advisor said, “Far from liberalising its form of governance, the Chinese Communist Party is perfecting this Orwellian surveillance police state internally and becoming more and more aggressive externally.

“I think what we have to do is we have to recognise what is driving the party and then not try to continue with this self-delusion that the party is going to somehow liberalise and play by the rules.

“I think the way that they mishandled this Covid crisis just highlights for us the nature of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Lt Gen McMaster said added, “I think that for all of us, we just have to recognise that this is going to take tremendous co-operation between us, because I think what we’re in now is a decoupling competition.

“I think there is a broad recognition that the Chinese Communist Party is not going to change its behaviour and therefore we have to minimise our exposure, as Lord Hague said, our dependencies.

“Unless we get some more backbone ourselves and recognise that we have to compete, and then recognise that this is a competition between free and open societies and a closed authoritarian system imposed on the Chinese people by the Chinese Communist Party, we’ll remain at a disadvantage.”

The Policy Exchange think-tank hosted a debate on Tuesday evening, whereby Lord Hague said the West’s policy towards China is “incoherent and ineffective.”

Lord Hague said, “This crisis reinforces the case for two major pillars to be established for Western policy towards China.”

Sir John Sawyer, the former MI6 chief has said that China “concealed” the truth from the West and are “evading blame” for the global coronavirus pandemic.

Sir John said Beijing have faces severe “anger” from the international community as they were not honest from the start of the outbreak.