Sir Vince Cable: An honor to speak after Dr. Pillsbury who is probably one of the two or three people in the world who is most authoritative on china and is a deep thinker. Many of the things he says and writes about are wise and right. But I, I sort of part company.
Former Liberal Democratic Leader Vince Cable speaks during a Best for Britain event in London, Britain, 30 October 2019. [EPA-EFE/ANDY RAIN]
The UK government’s decision to ban Huawei 5G equipment and services “had nothing to do with national security,” and was because of American pressure, a former business and industry minister has said.
Speaking at an event on Monday, Vince Cable, who served as Business and Industry minister for five years in the coalition government led by David Cameron, said that the decision against the Chinese tech giant was taken “because the Americans told us we should do it.”
In July 2020, Boris Johnson’s government announced that Huawei products would be removed entirely from the UK’s 5G networks by the end of 2027, citing new advice produced by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
The move came just months after the United States imposed sanctions against Huawei on the grounds that it was acting contrary to US national security or foreign policy interests. The US barred Huawei from acquiring crucial components such as microchips and forced it to create its own operating system.
Cable, who has a reputation for being more sympathetic towards China than most UK officials, added that during his tenure as minister, the intelligence and security services gave repeated assurances that there was no risk posed by using Huawei services.
“If Britain had kept with 5G, we would now be at the forefront of countries using the most advanced technologies. And we’re not,” said Cable.
凯布尔爵士是经济学学家,曾在英国格拉斯哥大学获得经济学博士。他在2015年出版的《风暴:世界经济危机及其意味着什么》(The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What it Means)中认为:保守党在过去5年的联合执政中,微笑着谋杀了自民党;书中还提及:保守党成功利用媒体,将金融风暴完全归罪于工党。此外他还在书中描写了一个极为强势的内政大臣特雷莎·梅(Theresa May)形象。他披露道:尽管保守党内人人尽知特雷莎的反移民政策对经济不利,可无人可撼她的政策一步,包括首相卡梅伦。我问爵士为何?他解释说特雷莎后有强大的民意支持,所以首相亦奈她的移民政策无何。我问:这股强大的反移民的英国情绪,会否回反映在未来的欧盟公投中,导致英国脱离欧盟?凯布尔爵士耸耸肩,说希望英国仍然留在欧盟。
凯布尔爵士是首位参加Strictly Come Dancing(BBC电视1台播放的名星交谊舞比赛也称舞动奇迹)的政府高官。2010年他初任商务大臣,便现身该节目圣诞特辑大赛,还获得一满分10分。凯布尔爵士说参加比赛前还有些担心,怕因此影响政途。后来证明这是加分票,因为该节目的高收视率让他一夜成为媒体明星。访问中凯布尔爵士一直表情严肃,唯独谈论起交谊舞满脸微笑。这是凯布尔爵士最大的人生爱好,他还经常参加交谊舞大赛。
10,608次观看2022年2月12日
Anthony Huang
前英国商务大臣在牛津辩论社上发言称,中国从未破坏以规则为基础的国际体系,破坏的人是特朗普。英国在于中国的交往中受益。
下面是YouTube自动设我能过程的发言记录。
An honor to speak after dr pillsbury who is probably one of the two or three people in the world who is most authoritative on china and is a deep thinker. Many of the things he says and writes about are wise and right. But I, I sort of part company.
In fact i i start to park company in the leading article in the book where it talks about china's secret strategy to replace America as the global superpower and then why why secret.
um in his book uh dr pillsbury describes an episode where a chinese defector comes to the united states and warns that there is a secret plan to make the
chinese economy as big as that of the United States by the year 2020 it's a
big shock you know big secret. Well i mean i have to tell him that 25 years ago i was sitting in a multinational company in london uh armed with a few statistics a
calculator and a bit of common sense, uh and you could work out um on the back of an envelope that china was almost certain to become the biggest conomy in the world by 2020.
00:12 [Music]
00:16 so you know there is an issue about the
00:18 the current hegemon you know the
00:22 superpower getting used to the idea that
00:24 there is another country which will have
00:26 comparable and potentially significantly
00:29 more economic heft i mean we you know
00:32 britain used to be number 100 years ago
00:34 so we've had a century to get used to
00:36 sliding down the league table
00:39 i think we're about now about number
00:40 eight we've just been overtaken by
00:42 indonesia i think the united states the
00:44 core of the problem in many ways is an
00:47 inability to get used to this basic fact
00:50 and to adapt to it and to accept that
00:52 china is going to have to be integrated
00:55 the rules of the world system which the
00:57 united states has led and led well to
01:00 our all to our benefit for the last 70
01:02 years president g's now been there for
01:05 10 years he set out his approach very
01:08 clearly 10 years ago and we accepted it
01:11 how to engage with china which is to
01:13 accept if you want to have a good
01:14 relationship with them you respect their
01:16 principle of self of territorial
01:19 integrity and non-interference for
01:21 example in the
01:23 issue of qinjian but it's very clear
01:26 that a lot of other countries in the world
01:28 buy the chinese argument including those
01:31 that are democratically elected
01:32
indonesia and malaysia pakistan
01:34
bangladesh nigeria have lined up on the
01:36
chinese side
01:39
[Music]
01:41
to take a particular issue which
01:43
concerns the british which is our
01:45
residual responsibilities in hong kong
01:48 and people here very upset western angry that
01:53 decent people have been bundled off to
01:55 prison and newspaper editors have been shut down, but i have to say the chinese always made it absolutely clear, what the red lines were in hong kong, but he said look there are certain parameters. You can say what you like free speech, you criticize the communist party but if there is violent disorder we will move in and stop it and those people in hong kong who in the name of democracy and free speech started throwing molotov cocktails at the police and vandalizing their legislature did their little bit to kill hong kong democracy, because it was very clear what the rules of the game were and the Chinese were not in any way dishonest or inca in clear about what was permissible and i think we need to remember that and similarly in terms of foreign policy
07:01
president g's now been there for 10
07:03
years he set out his approach very
07:06
clearly 10 years ago and we accepted it
07:09
and it was set out in a statement he
07:11
made
07:12
in mexico city it was asked about what's
07:14
your relationship going to be with the
07:16
west you said look
07:18
we're not going to export revolution
07:21
we're not going to export hungry
07:23
refugees
07:24
we're not going to mess with you don't
07:26
mess with us
07:28
and it's a bit crude but it's very clear
07:31
how to engage with china which is to
07:34
accept
07:35
if you want to have a good relationship
07:37
with them you respect their principle of
07:40
of uh territorial integrity and
07:42
non-interference
07:44
and that's the basis on which they've
07:46
since conducted their foreign affairs
07:49
it's why for example in the
07:52
issue of xinjiang
07:54
terrible human rights abuse i'm quite
07:56
sure but and the west has taken up a
07:59
strong position on it but it's very
08:00
clear that a lot of other countries in
08:02
the world
08:03
by the chinese argument every single
08:06
muslim country of importance
08:09
including those that are democratically
08:11
elected indonesia malaysia pakistan
08:13
bangladesh nigeria have lined up on the
08:15
chinese side
08:17
so that that principle
08:20
of dealing with china engaging with
08:22
china but recognizing the reality that
08:24
they have a different system
08:26
and they're not going to countenance
08:28
interference with their internal
08:30
politics that has to be out of sheer
08:33
realism the way we deal with them
08:36
so let me just
08:37
try and bring to a head
08:39
where i think this leads
08:41
i mean i was part of the government that
08:42
where we did try to engage with china
08:44
and our primary motive was economic
08:48
and we took the view and i would still
08:50
take the view that it was economically
08:52
beneficial to britain and other western
08:55
countries to engage economically with
08:58
china as a result of what we did
09:00
we still have a british steel industry
09:03
chinese company bought out tata steel it
09:05
was going to
09:07
we will have an electrical vehicle
09:09
industry because the chinese are going
09:11
to invest heavily in
09:13
batteries in the northeast of england
09:15
land rover is a highly successful motor
09:18
car industry in in the west midlands
09:20
because of the profits and the sales in
09:22
china
09:23
astrozenica which developed our vaccine
09:26
did so on the back of profits and sales
09:28
in china
09:29
british universities including this one
09:32
depend very heavily on
09:34
120 000
09:37
chinese students every year paying full
09:39
commercial fees
09:40
you know the british economy
09:43
has benefited from our relations with
09:45
china and i don't apologize for having
09:47
negotiated some of those things but it
09:50
isn't just parochial there's a broader
09:52
picture despite all the complaints about
09:55
chinese unfair practices
09:57
they've actually helped to keep the
09:59
world monetary system stable they hold
10:01
four trillion dollars worth of u.s
10:04
assets it was always going to be said
10:06
that they would use it to sabotage the
10:08
system and they were going for currency
10:10
warfare nothing of the kind has happened
10:13
they've kept the basic monetary system
10:15
stable and implicit partnership with the
10:18
united states the person who put the
10:20
boot into the rules-based system the
10:23
world trade organization wasn't the
10:25
chinese it was president trump
10:27
tried to cut it off at the knees
10:30
withdrawing support for the wto
10:33
and michael referred quite fairly to
10:36
some of the grievances which we have
10:38
with the chinese about intellectual
10:40
property rights
10:41
i mean all countries coming up
10:43
developing korea taiwan japan
10:47
and i have to say in its early stages
10:49
the united states which based its
10:51
development stealing
10:53
intellectual property from britain that
10:55
was how they got going i mean that's how
10:57
countries start
10:59
they have now introduced intellectual
11:01
property courts foreign companies are
11:03
now winning cases
11:04
they are adapting to the demands of a
11:07
globally responsible economic partner
11:10
we complain and we used to negotiate
11:13
with the chinese and say well
11:14
you open your market show that you're
11:16
willing to reciprocate
11:18
free trade
11:20
and the top of the western list and the
11:22
british list was always financial
11:23
services
11:24
and it's worth noting that in the
11:26
current flurry of uh
11:29
activity that's taking place in china on
11:31
policy that one of the things that the
11:33
president has done is to open up china
11:35
to financial services leading western
11:37
companies blackrock jp and organ are now
11:40
operating fully on subsidiaries in china
11:44
buying up chinese shares
11:46
you know they've accepted the
11:48
obligations of being part of an
11:49
integrated economic system but i've got
11:52
some concluding mark with something
11:53
that's more important than international
11:56
trade
11:57
which is those common headaches
11:59
economies called international public
12:01
goods
12:02
where countries have to cooperate
12:05
you know pandemics are one example
12:08
the other is in glasgow at the moment is
12:10
climate change and the chinese are
12:12
currently being portrayed as the bad
12:13
guys
12:15
and they have very large emissions of
12:17
course but not in actually per capita
12:20
terms or cumulatively but yeah
12:22
we're not going to solve the work the
12:23
climate problem without chinese
12:25
cooperation
12:26
and they do recognize there's a problem
12:28
they've just introduced carbon pricing
12:31
uh they've got the biggest renewable
12:33
energy industry the eclipse vehicle
12:35
industry in the world
12:37
um they tried to accelerate the phasing
12:40
out of coal and then run into power
12:42
shortages so they've had to backtrack
12:43
but they understand the necessity
12:46
but the key point is we're not going to
12:48
solve this problem unless we work with
12:50
them
12:51
on research common standards and so on
12:53
and you can't do that in a cold war
12:55
environment
12:56
and
12:58
and just my final point and i'll just
13:00
take a minute over this is the
13:02
proliferation of nuclear weapons
13:04
probably the biggest danger we face at
13:06
the moment
13:07
and there are road states north korea
13:10
pakistan potentially iran
13:13
china has influence with all those
13:15
countries we don't know how they
13:16
exercise it
13:17
but we could potentially minimize the
13:20
risks associated that if we're willing
13:22
to work with the chinese and something
13:24
even more serious because of the
13:26
collapse
13:28
of
13:29
conversations with china
13:31
a sort of paranoia has now developed
13:34
which is leading the chinese to build up
13:36
their stock of nuclear weapons they
13:39
had a minimum deterrence policy no first
13:41
use was no threat to anybody now they
13:44
fear they're going to be attacked by the United States so they're building up their nuclear arsenal i mean you can argue about who's to blame; but it's got to be stopped it's very very dangerous
and you only stop it if you talk to them and nobody is now talking to them and we have to engage for our our own sex as well as this thank you.