A Question of Time Concluding his 2029 RUSI Conference speech the Chief of Defence Staff referred back to some of the more pessimistic projections from the 2019 Spending Review. He reflected ruefully about the UK’s slippage down the ranks of the G20 nations and the missed opportunities to exploit the ‘Global Britain’ brand following the UK’s pyrrhic exit from the European Union (Brexit): “ultimately, the UK never really mattered much to China.”1 He was right: as a trade partner, in 2019 Britain ranked below Australia, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, and others. Germany was China’s most importa…
