Encouraged by successive governments, British companies have spent many years courting China, its resources and its huge, increasingly affluent population. British companies have paid a part in China’s unprecedented development, which has made the Middle Kingdom the world’s second-largest economy and raised hundreds of millions out of poverty. However, the hope that such development would anchor China in the Western world and foster values such as respect for the rule of law, human rights, and democracy has been shown to be fundamentally…
