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China and the West

I congratulate the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field) on securing the debate and opening it with such eloquence, setting out the economic challenges that the UK and other countries will face in the context of China's growth and emergence as an economic powerhouse. It is an important subject and, as is often the way with 90-minute debates in Westminster Hall, we could spend much more time discussing it, because it has so many aspects. We have heard about the economic side and the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) has focused on Tibet. The recent celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China were well publicised. I share the concern expressed by both hon. Members about the fact that China chose to celebrate with cruise missiles, unmanned drones and nuclear missile carriers, because those are not what most people would think of as the main symbol of their country's pride. There is genuine concern about freedom of expression and the human rights situation in China, and I will touch on that in my remarks. However, it is important, when passing judgment on other countries, that we look to the difficulties that we face in our own country. It is particularly interesting to note that today The Guardian, a national newspaper, has effectively been gagged, preventing it from reporting on Parliament in relation to the Trafigura issue. It is important to recall that not everything is perfect here. However, it is also interesting to see how that matter has been taken up by the internet. The hon. Member for North Wiltshire mentioned the huge number—in the thousands—of bloggers in China. Issues to do with freedom of expression in China will be dealt with by the increasing use of the internet. China spends a great deal of money trying to repress the internet, shutting down sites and so on: YouTube and a lot of other websites have had content from China removed from time to time. For example, if people in China google "Tiananmen square", they get information about the history of the landmark and about visiting it as a tourist attraction, but they will not receive any news within that web search on the atrocities that happened there. Ultimately, however, although China tries to repress the internet, it will end up being a tool for opening up democracy within that country. Obviously, the huge economic growth of China has brought with it much greater political influence. China is becoming increasingly important in many different diplomatic areas, including nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran and human rights issues in Burma, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. The challenge for the UK is to work out how best to engage with China across a range of issues, not least climate change, where it has a crucial role to play. I welcome the Government's strategy, published earlier this year, called "The UK and China: a Framework for Engagement." I will pick out some points from that in my remarks. If anything good has come out of the global recession—it is sometimes important to look for silver linings—it is unprecedented international co-operation on economic matters. That will be important as we face global challenges, including a transition to a low-carbon global economy as we approach peak oil, for example. The fact that the G7 has recently decided to make way for the G20 as a forum for global discussion is welcome. It is vital that we recognise the importance in such talks of the emerging economies of China, India and Brazil. China's importance in the move from G7 to G20 is key. We need to go further and reform other international institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, to ensure that the realpolitik of the global environment is much better represented. As the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster mentioned, there are differences in the structure of China's economy versus the economies of the west. China's saving rate in 2008 was more than half its gross domestic product. China requires a reduction in saving, but that is the opposite of what we need to do. It recognises that its people need to spend more to increase its stability. As it reforms its welfare state and health care systems, that will reduce the incentives for the Chinese to save so much of their income, which is in effect an insurance policy and safety net that they create for themselves. The Chinese are having to change their mindset and culture with regard to their economic habits, and we need to do the same. The average adult in the UK owes more than £30,000. That personal debt is, as I am sure all hon. Members are aware, a huge burden that people are bearing within the difficulties of the recession. An essential task for the Government is to reform the regulation of credit and debt in the UK, so that it is no longer possible for people to get into such unsustainable personal debt. The hordes of junk mail that come through people's letterboxes urging them to take on thousands and thousands of pounds more debt need to be curbed.