Equivocal policies founder on binary decisions. The Huawei decision won’t be the last binary here. US trade negotiators have already suggested that any trade deal Washington strikes with Brexit Britain could be conditional on the UK’s dealings with rivals such as China. It is not fanciful to imagine Washington one day forcing a British government to choose between trade with the US and trade with China. The prospect of a post-Brexit trade deal putting such clear constraints on Britain’s self-determination would be funny if it weren’t so serious. What should British voters make of all this? The public could be forgiven for lacking developed views of these matters, because they are barely discussed here. Future historians assessing Britain’s approach to China’s rise will be struck by the paucity of political debate on the topic. Is the Belt and Road programme of strings-attached investment an attempt to create captive Chinese allies across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe? Will China’s support for Iran destabilise the Gulf and jeopardise oil and gas flows to the West? What are the global implications of China’s creation of a near-Orwellian technology of domestic surveillance and control over information? How can anyone trust a state that imprisons and “re-educates” a million Muslims in Xinjiang? What does China want?
Times 30th Dec 2019 read more »
A ceremony was held on 15 December at the Xiangshan uranium deposit near Fuzhou city in China’s Jiangxi province to mark the start of the country’s deepest drilling project related to the exploration of uranium resources. China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) said a 3000-metre-deep bore hole will be drilled.
World Nuclear News 30th Dec 2019 read more »