China’s military display is a reality check for europe | thearticle

While Britain and Europe are mesmerised by an Irish border that both sides nominally agree should not exist, on the other side of our shrinking world the People’s Republic of China was

demonstrating its military might. Beijing was transformed into a gigantic temple dedicated to the god of war. China’s hypersonic missiles are now far in advance of the West. The United

States has no comparable hardware, yet Donald Trump declares “trade wars” that damage both sides. Franklin Roosevelt could once boast that America was “the arsenal of democracy”. This week

Xi Jinping showed the world that China has become the arsenal of tyranny. The pictures of Xi and the massed ranks of the Communist leadership bowing thrice to the mummified Mao Zedong in his

mausoleum were chilling. This grotesque ceremony symbolises the obeisance paid by the ruling party to the most diabolical chapter of its past. Mao murdered, enslaved and starved his people

on a scale unprecedented in history. Yet China is moving seamlessly from Cultural Revolution to cultural amnesia. This is a land where power alone is revered, a nation in denial about the

crimes of its patriarch. And what of Europe, once the cradle of Western civilisation and now its museum? A survey last month by the European Council on Foreign Relations showed that

Europeans overwhelmingly reject the idea of taking sides in any conflict between the United States and either Russia or China. Even in France, which after Brexit will be the only nuclear

power to belong both to Nato and the EU, just 18 per cent chose to support their American allies against either China or Russia, compared to 64 per cent who preferred neutrality. In other EU

counties (the UK was not included), those in favour of the mutual guarantee that is the basis of the Western alliance were mostly even fewer. The statistical outlier was Poland, where 33

per cent would support the US against the Russians, yet even there they were outnumbered by the 45 per cent who chose not to take sides. Not even fear and loathing of a near neighbour that

has invaded and brutalised them many times over the last three centuries is enough, it seems, to convince a majority of Poles to stand by its ally. This begs the question why, if Europeans

are so reluctant to support the US, should Americans risk their lives for Europeans? There is no good answer to this. Or rather: we know what Trump’s answer would be — and on this, he

probably speaks for most of his compatriots. The Atlantic alliance now resembles a gigantic bluff, a bluff that could be called at any time. Where does Britain stand? In most of its

attitudes, this country is closer to its European “friends and partners”, as Boris Johnson likes to call them, than to its American cousins. Preserved in the collective memory of the British

people, however, is a profound truth. It was best articulated by Pitt the Younger, when he assured the City fathers gathered in the Guildhall, soon after the Battle of Trafalgar: “England

has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.” Though still Prime Minister, Pitt was by then a dying man; this was his last speech. Like Nelson, the

hero of Trafalgar, Pitt died before the age of 50. Today, Boris Johnson — in the peak of health at 55 — delivers his first speech as Prime Minister to the Conservatives gathered in

Manchester. The Prime Minister should raise our sights beyond the immediate tasks that face the nation. Compared to those of our ancestors, they are not so very daunting. However hard it may

be, getting Brexit done won’t be as hard as winning the Cold War, let alone defeating Napoleon or Hitler. The threats to our liberty are, however, now more formidable than ever. Our mission

should be to rally the friends of freedom among the English-speaking peoples, while setting an example for fellow Europeans to follow.