The UK’s Policy Towards China In The Johnsonera:from Soft Hedging To Hard Hedging

As China grows more assertive and powerful on the global stage,the rise of China is an important issue for both the UK to deal with.However,the US is an important influencing factor in the UK’s China policy.The UK-US special relationship has been the primary focus of the UK’s foreign policy since the Second World War.The relationship is asymmetric,and the UK is manipulated by the US when cooperating with other countries most of the time.Stepping into the 21st century,the asymmetry of the special relationship has been strengthened due to the relative decline of the UK.The thesis adopts the hedging theory to elucidate the UK’s China policy under the leadership of prime minister Boris Johnson.Hedging is the behaviour of a state to reduce risks and safeguard national interests when interacting with another state in the face of uncertainties(Wang,27).Hedging can be broadly divided into soft hedging and hard hedging,measured by the states’ relative strength and threat perception against the target country.There are five hedging strategies:engagement,enmeshment,qianzhi,fangfan and balancing.Engagement is the least intense hedging strategy,while balancing is the most intense one(Table 2).In that sense,when there is more engagement in a country’s policy towards the target country,it is practising soft hedging.Conversely,when there are more coercive strategies,such as qianzhi,fangfan and balancing,in a country’s policy towards the target country,it implements hard hedging.Considered the importance of the US in the UK policy choices,the thesis divides the research on the UK’s China policy in two periods,namely Johnson-Trump era(July 2019-January 2021)and Johnson-Biden era(January 2021-).And in explaining the country’s hedging behaviour against others,all the five strategies(engagement,enmeshment,qianzhi,fangfan and balancing)are present in the field of politics,national security and economy.By a comprehensive analysis,the thesis makes the following conclusion:In the Johnson-Trump era(July 2019-January 2021),compared with other small countries,the level of the UK’s relative strength against China was high.And the level of the UK’s threat perception of China changed from low to high.Thus,the UK experienced a policy shift from soft hedging to hard hedging with the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 as the watershed.One of the typical cases of the UK’s flip-flopping on its China policy was the Huawei case.In the Johnson-Biden era(January 2021-),the UK’s policy against China was hard hedging.Both the UK’s relative strength and threat perception against China remained at a high level.However,we must notice that the UK-China cooperation is the mainstream during the Johnson era.The UK’s hedging against China is only a policy trend,and it doesn’t indicate the UK is anti-China in all respects.The UK-China cooperation still has a promising future.Based on the hedging theory,the thesis has provided relatively new and novel insights into this issue from a perspective different from any existing research.It may serve as a reference for the policymakers when interacting with the UK.Against the background of profound changes unseen in a century,the thesis bears the era’s significance.