China: MI5 and FBI heads warn of ‘immense’ threat

FBI Director Christopher Wray and British MI-5 boss Ken McCallum gave an unusual joint presentation to a group composed of business executives and academic leaders at Thames House in London, according to the BBC. The focus of the talk was the threat presented by the Chinese to the West, mostly in economic terms.

Unlike in the Cold War era, when the Free World was forced to spend billions to prevent the godless Soviets from spreading their ideology everywhere, Wray and McCallum, and the organizations they represent, are engaged in a battle with the Chinese over technology that's supposed to be worth billions rather than socialist theory.

Leaving aside the fact that MI-5 represents an increasingly irrelevant entity that simply happens to be an ally of the US and that the credibility of the FBI through the questionable legality of its domestic activities has suffered, are these two bureaucracies even competent enough to handle this task? 

Of course, they do have help. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said days ago:  We have an interest in ensuring that international behaviour and differences are not resolved by power and size only, they are resolved by reference to international norms and laws. 

She made this statement during a visit to Singapore that included meetings with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. But aren't international norms and laws pretty much dictated by entities of power and size? The new Partners in the Blue Pacific is an example.

Indeed, China does have a size advantage over every other country on the planet, at least in terms of population. Power is another thing. Chinese ability to project power in a meaningful, international context isn't a threat for most of the rest of the world. Its potential and real economic muscle is another thing. No longer a communist country, if it ever was one, China is now a command state capitalist  venture operated by a single party that seems to be successful by many measures. This is why various Western nations feel threatened.

Actually, the Western nations don't feel threatened, figures in their governments and business communities do. Attempts by the UK and the US to keep China in the foyer of economic development will harm their own populations and the Chinese more than the Chinese government, who, just like the UK and US nomenclatura are transitory figures in the scheme of history.