The former British prime minister was on to the antics of Russia and China, well before anyone else. Twenty years ago, Baroness Thatcher gave a speech to an International Free Enterprise dinner that is even more prescient today.
Australia lashes China, WHO: ‘Our beef didn’t cause COVID’
Time we cut losses and hit China reset
Here’s an edited extract of what she told that dinner: “The freedom we take for granted today was created and upheld by the English speaking peoples. “These are the real practical advantages that come from our history – a great history – and one that doesn’t need ‘re branding’’.“The painful paradox is that we conservatives, here and abroad, have won the arguments but lost power. Our very success has made us seem dispensable. “In the post Cold War era, there’s a premium on soft focus and the soft Left, because the illusion persists that all the important battles have been won.“They haven’t. Just look around you. The world today is more dangerous than ever. Rogue states are more difficult to control. Islamic militancy threatens terrorism and instability.
Russia remains a mighty nuclear power, while sinking into chaos with Communists and other extremists closing in.“China grows rapidly richer but remains oppressive and aggressive. These are mighty challenges that require the very strongest nerves.“This so-called New World Order has become an Old World Nightmare. We’ve had too many conferences and communiques, too many slogans about human rights and too little recognition of the depths of human evil.’’Baroness Thatcher then goes on to talk about how Western democracies have dropped the ball on defence spending and that “the only true peace dividend is peace itself’’.Fast-forward two decades and it is Australia that is bearing the brunt – certainly in the Asian region – of that Chinese oppression and aggression. In fact, the Chinese have become so baldly adversarial that they are now becoming a caricature of themselves.The lies, obfuscation, comedic rhetoric emanating from China, with the complicity of the World Health Organisation, over the origins of coronavirus, is pathetic. It’s an insult to the intelligence of anybody with half a brain. The fact that they think people would buy this bulldust goes to the heart of our relationship with China.
We’re told not to stay in an abusive relationship. China’s populist posturing may work on the domestic stage, but under the cold hard light of Western scrutiny it has become as laughable as it is dangerous. For the WHO to be hijacked to the extent it has by China’s bullying and hectoring attitude is a terrible indictment on its independence.It gives countries like the United States, Japan, India, Australia, Canada, the UK, France, Germany and New Zealand no confidence at all that we will be protected in the future from some Wuhan-type pandemic folly. The WHO is a lame duck. It has no credibility and no standing within the international epidemiology community.China’s flagrant irresponsibility on the pandemic demonstrates it is not fit to be part of any ongoing global response. It is too busy trying to save face, rather than save lives. As Baroness Thatcher put it in 1999, it is a rogue state that remains oppressive and aggressive. We have no choice but to divest away from such a country.If that means short term pain for long term gain, so be it.
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