Why Britain must counter the revisionists.

This article was contributed to the UK Defence Journal by James Rogers and James Thorp. James Rogers is Director of the Global Britain Programme and James Thorp is a Research Assistant, both at the Henry Jackson Society.

Sun Tzu wrote that “supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” Indeed, defence is not just about the tangible –  navies, air forces, armies, or even cyber forces – but is also about shaping and reshaping narratives, discourse and perception.

Better than their counterparts in democratic nations, contemporary strategic theorists in authoritarian, revisionist regimes – such as Russia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – appreciate Sun Tzu’s ideas. They have started to develop increasingly sophisticated ways to discredit foreign views that they find distasteful or antithetical, while simultaneously replacing them with messages of their own. The PRC recently struck the UK with such an offensive.

On the 11th of February, Gavin Williamson, the Secretary of State for Defence, gave a speech on ‘Transforming Defence’ to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). In his speech, he stated that the UK must be ready to take “action” against “those who flout international law…to shore up the global system of rules and standards on which our security and our prosperity depends.”

He also announced that “the first operational mission of HMS Queen Elizabeth will include the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Pacific region. Making Global Britain a reality.”

The PRC latched onto these announcements, many of them relatively mundane and included also in last year’s National Security Capability Review and Modernising Defence Programme.

Just after the Defence Secretary’s speech, the PRC was reported to have announced that it would cancel proposed trade talks between Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Hu Chunhua, the Vice-Premier of the PRC. Much speculation mounted in the British media as to whether this was true, particularly given a statement from a spokesperson from HM Treasury stating that “no trip was ever announced or confirmed.”

Speculation was not helped by an ostensibly pre-recorded intervention by George Osborne, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, which was broadcast on the Week on Westminster on BBC Radio 4 on 16 February where he stated – surely understanding the implications of his choice of words – that the Defence Secretary was “engaging in gunboat diplomacy of a quite old-fashioned kind” (a term that often carries historical baggage in the UK). In opposition to the British government’s more comprehensive stance, Mr Osborne went on to explain that the only way to “deliver” in relation to the PRC was through “engagement”, for which he expressed his admiration.

In subsequent reports by the Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The National and the Daily Telegraph, the former Chancellor’s comments about “gunboat diplomacy”, the alleged cancellation of trade talks, and the inaccurate focus on the South China Sea, were all repeated without question. For example, the Financial Times’ piece from 15 February – co-authored by the same reporter who previously interviewed the former Chancellor for the BBC – described “the Pacific region” as “China’s backyard”, despite the fact that the UK has also its own territories and interests there.

Beyond the fact that elements of the British media covered the story from a de facto pro-PRC standpoint, it is here that Beijing seized on the domestic debate to reshape the narrative, ostensibly to deflect attention from its own revisionist activity in the South China Sea.

This is evident by how, subsequently, Liu Xiaoming, the PRC’s Ambassador to the UK, intervened with forceful and calculated commentaries in the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, on the 20 and 26 February, respectively. Both of the Ambassador’s interventions accused Mr Williamson of engaging in ‘gunboat diplomacy’; both accused the Defence Secretary of “resurrecting” the “anachronistic” mentality of the Cold War; both focused on future British activities in the South China Sea instead of the vast Pacific region (to which Mr Williamson referred); and both warned the UK that its economic relations with the PRC would be at risk if it continued to challenge Chinese perspectives and intentions.

What does this show? It shows that the PRC is attempting to influence internal UK debates by exploiting domestic divides and reinforcing narratives that discredit the British government, while simultaneously replacing Britain’s legitimate perspectives with its own. London needs to wake up to this new reality because the ideas and institutions it has created and underpinned around the world with its allies – the so-called “rules-based international order” – are being challenged like no time since the height of the Cold War.

Undoubtedly, Britain’s open society makes it difficult to counter foreign attempts to reshape British narratives. UK legislation to constrain the domestic media would only backfire, gradually changing the country into the kind of society favoured by its authoritarian competitors. That said, as the world becomes more contested and volatile, British politicians and the media must escape from their myopic focus on internal political squabbles. If they fail, the ground on which they are fighting is in danger of being removed from beneath their feet by external revisionist forces.

Preventing revisionist regimes – like the PRC and Russia – from ‘hijacking’ existing domestic disputes and divides to further their own agendas will involve more than a passive approach. Like Sun Tzu counseled, the UK should push back. By empowering the BBC World Service and the British Council, Britain should project its own narratives around the world more vigorously. Equally, through more clandestine information offensives, the UK should begin targeting its revisionist competitors to (re)shape their narratives.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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90 COMMENTS

  1. Exactly. This is why for instance I would have thought it would have been a good idea at the time to have called Russias bluff on Crimea. They claimed that their troops were peacekeepers, we should have said “We agree totally and so we are sending our own peacekeepers to help you”. What would Russia have done then? Basically we would have stopped the Annexation of Crimea by not having a fight!

        • They would shoot you down. End of story.
          You do not see Russian troops trying to act as “peacekeepers” and intervening between the US and Cuba over Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Why? Because it would be a death sentence and it would be the same in reverse for a intervention by western forces into Crimea. It would have been more than a fight it would have been giving Russia several casus belli for example self-defense, preemptive action based on the last 30 years of “peacekeeping” by Western forces has always resulted in shooting and bombing. This is not the Middle East it is not Africa, this is the damned border of a massively well armed European state that sits on the security council.

    • No one can dream to fight WWF wrestling with ailing body. China is able to harass Western societies through it’s parallel hierarchies which it has managed to create within western societies, using their domestic fault lines. Human right, gender equality, environment, relentless immigration from third world, illicit drug trade, counterfeits, supporting axis of evil, manipulation political systems through bribes & debts as in SA & other countries in Africa, BRI, ecosystems like shell companies to facilitate under-invoiced imports, pliable custom brokers etc etc have been used craftily. Rather than having China centered policy West should adopt principal centered approach and look inwards, to be effective. https://shoorvarun.blogspot.com/2018/09/sustaining-british-world-order.html

  2. We should push back by doing the very thing they accuse us of, send HMS Queen Elizabeth at the head of a multilateral carrier strike group right in to the South China Sea. China’s version of international trade is very one sided so I can’t see any benefit to the UK of a free trade agreement with China. Better to stay on WTO terms. If China wants to float the Renminbi it has little choice but to use London as an international clearing centre. The Uk does not need to bow down to China for anything. We do ourselves a discredit constantly talking the UK down and China up. George Osbourne is the exact twat that got the UK into its present mess. He should not even be allowed to write in UK press. Also it’s woth noting that the big prize in the region will not be a trade agreement with China but membership of TPP. If the UK joins before the USA then the UK can dictate the terms of US re entry. That way the UK can keep the NHS and not have to accept Trump levels of rat fieces in processed food. Sailing a carrier strike group into the region is the best way to get in to TPP.

  3. The PRC and Russia attempt to highlight British activities as an old style colonial power because they are perfectly aware that the UK has been nothing but a force for good in the world for some considerable time.

      • Sorry, I cannot help myself but ask, a force of good for who Mark? I base my question on my experience in the ME and surrounding areas spending much time in Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghan border area with Iran. I am not trying to pick a fight just curious to how you see this force of good. Would not saying national interests be more accurate?

        • Kosovo, Bosnia, Sierra Leone. The areas sorounding Iraq have major issue no doubt but very little of it due to British action. Syria is interesting, the one place we did not intervene and it ended up being by far the bloodiest. Dammed if we do dammed if we don’t. I can’t think of one good thing Russia or China ever did which should probably be the bench mark to look at in terms of international action.

          Afghanistan is also in a bad way but it’s better then when we arrived in 2001.

          • I disagree with you on many of your points but I guess that’s no surprise, but thank you for the reply, it helps with my understanding

        • Ulya over the last 70 years the death rate due to war has dropped to an all time low. When the world powers start to work together and starve the oxygen from these types of conflicts we may discover further improvements. It is in the interests of the UK to help keep the peace and deter aggression. That is a force for good. You are perhaps closer to the consequences of a failure of the world powers to understand that their own interests are linked to a wider failure to work together for a common good.

          • I do agree with you that the world’s powers need to work together to try to stop these war etc, but when the sides have such different views on things and there is no real communication or respect for each other’s view I don’t see that happening anytime soon. We can always hope. Again, thank you for your reply

          • World powers are more in agreement now than at any time in history. They all agree on the same basic economic model and even political structure. Both China and Russia are technically democracy’s after a fashion. All world powers excluding the US signed up to Paris accords and even trump won’t pull out of the full accords. Montreal accords on CFC’s were a massive success and all world powers are cooperating in areas such as CRS and anti terrorism. Compared to where we were in the 1950’s all world powers are virtually on the same page. Most of the bluster from China and Russia is for benefits of the press and their domestic audience.

        • And what has Russia done for world peace Ulya? if you think its Syria? then why use cluster bombs in populated areas then allow assad to use the very accurate barrel bombs and the use of sarin on its people.I know you like to sow doubt in your very subtle way but as martin ponited out the UK was at the for front in Kosavo.Stopping the more dominant military serbs ethnic cleansing on the Kosavo people while Russia tried to arm the serbs.

          • Dave, you already believe me a troll so will dismiss my opinion as nothing more than Russian propaganda and you and I have very different views on Syria. My interest in this site and the comments here is trying to further my understanding of UK people’s view of things and because I have an interest in the UK military, it’s easy enough to listen to your government and read your media to get the official view. So far many of the comments and replys have been interesting and done politely, I cannot be bothered getting into the whole troll argument with anyone, it adds nothing to my life

        • What were your Middle East Experiences Ulya ? Care to share them with us,so we can get a balanced view?

      • I think there have been many mistakes along the way and perhaps more to come but I feel that although we might lose sleep over the consequences and the motives might have been naive – were the intentions good?

  4. Britain may happily apologise for its more squalid imperial mis-adventures, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll sit back and let other powers like Russia and the PRC be rapacious imperialists themselves. That’s why we are part of the 5 powers agreement. Any anti-imperialist that tolerates someone else’s imperialism is nothing but a hypocrite.

    Furthermore, the commonwealth is extremely popular among poorer states- it provides information that they cannot usually access. It has completely transcended its imperial past and become an organisation that nation after nation are desperate to join. It represents the absolute best of the old empire. Post-Brexit, I hope we make more use of it!

      • I can’t believe nobody in government has brought that idea up already!

        If we remade the Commonwealth as a free trade organisation then we could negotiate free trade deals as not one nation but as 49 nations including Australia and Canada; that gives major power to us in negotiations.

      • I think there were Concerns expressed Pre EU Membership regarding our Trade with the Commonwealth. Not that the Government Listened.

        funny that !

      • Isn’t going to happen, guys. Canada and Australia have already said that they intend to negotiate hard for trade deals that are more favourable to them than the ones they have with the EU.

          • Well, Yes, And How Rich they all were as a result. Meanwhile, the other 90% just stayed Poor.

            If I were a Sweary Type, I’d probably, Swear.

  5. Rules-based international order ? Like Trump telling the Syrian’s to get their troops out of the Golan Heights because it is now part of Israel ? Or telling the Russians to get their personnel out of Venezuela or the US will impose new sanctions on Russia ? When will the UK make a stand against the Neo-Cons in Washington in defence of the “rules-based international order” ?

  8. A British think tank is being funded by Japan to run a propaganda campaign against Chinese foreign policy.

    Sir Malcolm Rifkind was approached to put his name to an article on article on China’s nuclear plans
    The Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is a registered charity run by Alan Mendoza, an unsuccessful Tory candidate at the 2015 general election, which promotes an interventionist foreign policy to protect democracy and human rights.

    The charity is reportedly receiving around £10,000 a month from the Japanese embassy in London to encourage politicians and journalists to speak out against China’s international political moves.

    The campaign is said to revolved around a “communications strategy” aimed at putting Japan’s issues “on the radar of mainstream UK journalists and politicians”, including reporters on The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Economist.

    Former foreign secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, revealed that he had been approached by the HJS to author an article in The Daily Telegraph last August which propagated concerns around China’s involvement in Britain’s Hinkley Point C nuclear plant.

    Rifkind stated that he had no knowledge of the HJS’s financial relationship with the Japanese embassy and should have “informed me of that relationship when they asked me to support the article they provided”.

    The relationship between the HJS and the embassy began last year and is reportedly due for renewal in April, according to reports in the Times.

    The campaign reflects tensions between China and Japan and highlights Japan’s concerns of a growing relationship between the UK and China. While on a visit to Shanghai in September 2015 former chancellor, George Osborne’s, called for a golden decade” of Sino-British co- operation.

  10. The neoconservative Henry Jackson Society (HJS) think tank is on the payroll of the Japanese embassy, charged with drafting in public figures to spread anti-Chinese propaganda, investigators claim.
    The Times’ investigation suggests the London-based HJS is paid £10,000 (US$12,500) per month to spread anti-Chinese propaganda, including through public figures like former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind.

    HJS frames itself as a pro-intervention and pro-capitalist voice, which aims to spread freedom and democracy around the world. It is run by the academic and failed Tory parliamentary candidate Alan Mendoza.

    Read more
    British neocons take new McCarthyism across the Atlantic British neocons take new McCarthyism across the Atlantic
    The deal between the think tank and the embassy was reportedly reached to counter the growing cooperation between the UK and China, championed by former Chancellor George Osborne.

    The agreement reflects the rising tensions between China and Japan – the latter a close US ally in the Asia-Pacific region.

    Rifkind confirmed to the Times over the weekend that he had been asked by HJS in August to put his name to an article called ‘How China could switch off Britain’s lights in a crisis if we let them build Hinkley C’, which criticized a UK-Chinese nuclear power station deal.

    The comment piece claimed there may be a risk of a Chinese-funded power station having cyber-backdoors built into it which could present a risk to UK security.

    Rifkin told the Times he had not been aware of the links between HJS and the Japanese embassy and said the think tank “ought to have informed me of that relationship when they asked me to support the article they provided. It would have been preferable if they had.”

    The report indicates that HJS originally approached the Japanese embassy alongside a PR firm named Media Intelligence Partners (MIP), which is run by a former Tory PR man named Nick Wood.

    The Times says it saw an early version of a proposal which would see the think-tank and PR firm develop a communications strategy for the embassy for a fee of £15,000 per month.

    This, they said, would allow Japan’s concerns to be placed “on the radar of mainstream UK journalists and politicians.” It includes journalists from major papers like the Telegraph and the Guardian.

    Other aims included the creation of “an engaged and interested cadre of high-level politicians” and a focus on the “threat to Western strategic interests posed by Chinese expansionism.”

    The actual deal reached was for a lower figure of £10,000 plus expenses, according to the Times.

  11. A neoconservative think tank? F**k off haha

    Good old neocon politics, that gave us the complete shitstorm in the middle east, turned Russia that was on it’s knees ready to be embraced into an enemy again, gave us arseholes like Bush, Blair, Clinton and Obama, given the world islamic terrorism on a whole new scale.

    Why do you think people voted for Trump and Brexit, neocon politics runs deep in US and EU policy, free market economics and open borders, multiculturalism, meanwhile burying our loved ones because of foreign intervention in places we are despised and regime change in the name of the “rules based international order” what on earth could go wrong with all that hey.

    Do one.

    • The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

      Fear, anger and hate are great, powerful feelings, without them we wouldn’t be where we are today.

      See what happens when you think instead of trying desperately to be funny/smart/witty/childish/stupid (delete as appropriate)

      • Superb, what a great exchange this has been, my mind is now packed full of new insight on geopolitics, now run along and educate the other children on here on with your amazing insight.

      • Oh Dear, Oh Deary me, Another Condescending Poster.

        Tell us Sole Survivor, Who will you argue with when you are the “Sole Survivor ?

      • Are you aware that you use capital letters randomly in a sentence?

        The SoleSurvivor name is not meant to mean I will be the the sole survivor of anything, it’s the name of my favourite video game protagonist.

      • Ermmm, Yup, I’m way less InTeLeGENt thaN YoU AnD In No waY WoRThy of A PlaCE hERe duE To My ObViouS InPeDemeNT .
        SoRRy If i Can’T comPete HerE oN a LeVel PlAyiNg FiELD as You BuT I is ToO thIcK .

      • I don’t think proper punctuation has much to do with intelligence, depending on how you measure it, I was just curious if you are doing it for a reason to make some words seem more important than others that’s all, it just seems random.

        I am aloud to comment on the content of your posts am I not? like you have done with mine? or is this another case of you not getting your own way in an exchange and spitting your dummy out like your mate has?

      • Oh Dear Again. Did you try to type Allowed ? or were you being Deliberately Thick ?

        My Mate ? Seriously Sole, I have no mates on here, just a couple of Like Minded Free Thinking, non aggressive, Fellow Posters.

        Not sure where you think I’ve ever “Spat My Dummy out on here” Can you Enlighten me and everyone else please as I’m just thinking you are “Trolling” Me .

        Well That’s how you are coming over.

        ??????????
        Waiting .

      • Irony is lost on you, you’re commenting under my posts targeting what I have said and you’re calling me a troll?

        You have spat your dummy out right now, why else are you commenting under my posts, not only that you are making your own posts about me below.

        Do I have to ask you to leave me alone? or are you going to carry on trolling under my posts?

      • Ermmm, Why am I replying under your Post’s ????

        Ermmm DOH, It’s because I’m, Replying !!!!!

        FFS .

        You seem to be confusing “Trolling’ with Replying. But Well done mate, you’re doing a Cracking Job of It.

      • So why the f**k are you calling me replying to you “trolling”??

        So when you both reply to me it’s just replying and when i reply it’s trolling, this is seriously getting ridiculous.

  12. “Funny/Smart/Witty/childish/Stupid” Ha Ha Ha.

    I resemble that remark !!!!!

    PS, Don’t Diss the RGR, He’s way more popular on here than virtually anyone else due to being

    “Funny/Smart/witty/Childish/Stupid”

    keep up the great work RGR.

    • I will be very unimpressed if that is so.

      Sole has written some very thought provoking posts for some time, many of which I agree with.

      H has self importance and superiority coming from every pore.

      • You commented under my post with something stupid and unnecessary, a Star Wars quote that was actually condescending.

        All I did the other week was correct you, go back and have a look, no abuse, no wit, no calling you anything, I corrected you that’s all.

        There are ways and means to engage with different people on here, you should have the decency to acknowledge that quoting Yoda to me and then saying “I sense much fear in you young Padawan” would not really go down well with me, I don’t engage with that on here, by all means be childish and have a laugh as much as you want on here, say silly things, quote pop culture and make jokes I’m really not bothered, you have been doing it for ages and I have not said one thing to you.

        But try have respect for people that don’t please, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and everyone does not have to engage with it on here.

        The weird thing is as well I was actually going to respond with something like “what does that mean?” as in I was thinking you said that reference meaning I fear something of some sort. But then I didn’t because I expected a reply to that from you or the other guy saying “it’s Star Wars ffs!!”

    • Another one to pity Cap? haha, you commented under my post, I have been on this site for years and I have commented under just one of your posts, last week when you were spouting complete nonsense about paying for India’s space program.

      You don’t have any trolls, trolls target people with strong opinions, trolls comment under everything you say trying to annoy you, believe me you don’t have any trolls, you have had a couple of people that have called you out on your stupidity and disagreed with you, you have spat your dummy out and started calling them trolls because you didn’t like it.

      • BlImEy, I Can’T RemeMber That One. But ThaNks for YoUr RePly SoLe.

        I’M ReaLLy SoRry tO haVe UpSet SomEOne Who Has MoRe oF A riGht To bE HerE as YoU hAve bEen Here LONGeR THan AnyONE ELSE.

        I MuSt Try PoSTiNG StronGer OpiniOns Here,

        As FOr The LasT SentenCE MaTE , WeLL I’lL Let OthER PoStErs RePLy to YOUr VerSiOn Of My PoPuLaRity. and YOur ObViouS IgNoRance .

        TH and Herodotus are Strangely Absent . Lately. By the Fucking Way.!!!!!!

        • Tell everyone where the disinformation is then, make a counter argument, make me look silly and prove me wrong.

      • BTW, You have got the “Paying for India’s Space Program” comment wrong.

        I didn’t Write that.

        just saying.

        • The first line of my comment was “another one to pity Cap”

          Quoting Rear Gunner Richards, which is who I was replying to.

        • Sole. OK, I see now. It’s the way this site Is Laid out, Unless you put the Person’s name first, Any reply can be taken wrongly.

      • Well, Just to Explain the Ha bit, I was replying to RGR’s Post but It got Lost.

        Personally I don’t think or believe Sole Is another Incarnation of TH or HERODOTUS but I do think Another Poster is.
        I’ll Keep Poking Him/Her until He/She , Slips up.
        I Think Sole has just got a Long Memory and a bit of a Downer on Humour.

        There’s nothing Personal here. In just find It all very Interesting, just like when I was Paid to do this sort of stuff. !

  14. Solesurvivor#
    Trolls like you, Totally alienate new posters like me, sprouting your Far left Bulls***!
    Get a life!
    How do they get away peddling such rubbish!

    • What far left rubbish is that?

      In what way am i “troll”

      I have seen that name on here before so how new are you?

      Why don’t you try involve making a counter argument to someone’s point in your life, instead of vaguely attacking someone.

        • No I really don’t.

          The first two posts were from The Times newspaper, hardly far left. And my third comment were valid points shared by millions of people, so why don’t you get your head out your arse and try prove me wrong instead making a fool out yourself, lying saying you’re a new poster when you have a very familiar name that I’ve seen on here before, making accusations of disinformation without any evidence to back it up.

          What a fool you are.

  17. A very important and timely article. Appears the comments have somewhat strayed from the original topic at hand.

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