Anger and alarm about China is mounting rapidly in government circles and especially among Tory rightwingers, anxious about national security, unfair trade practices and Hong Kong. Its certainly true that the increasingly aggressive behaviour of President Xi Jinpings authoritarian regime is deeply worrying. Its a pity that the Tory grandees who are making the most noise now did not raise their concerns much earlier, before Britain became dependent on Beijings favours to escape its Brexit mess.

As pressure grows on Boris Johnson to exclude the telecoms company Huawei from the UKs 5G rollout and to review Chinese investment in nuclear, transport and other security-related projects, Iain Duncan Smith and former ministers David Davis, Liam Fox and Owen Paterson are backing an interparliamentary alliance to scrutinise Chinas activities. Separately, Tories in the new China Research Group, modelled on Westminsters pro-Brexit European Research Group, are boldly promising greater vigilance.

China believes it can exploit British economic, financial and political neediness to get its own way

Of immediate concern is Chinas draconian national security law in Hong Kong. Beijings curt dismissal of British protests was followed by threats of unspecified consequences should the UK open its borders to millions of British overseas passport holders in the former colony. This in turn has focused Tory attention on wider problems, including Chinas escalating intimidation of Taiwan and its punitive measures against Australia following Canberras call for an independent inquiry into the pandemic.

In an interview with the Hudson Institute last week, Duncan Smith was rich in hindsight. In a race for trade and investment over the past decade, he said, the free world has marched somewhat blindly into the embrace of [the] Chinese Communist party. Unfortunately, it was now clear that China was intent on complete dominance globally. Speaking to the BBC last month, he went so far as to suggest that revolution was afoot: While China is a great nation, its posing a threat to the natural order.

Leaving aside what Duncan Smith meant by the natural order, all this Tory angst comes a bit late, and sounds a tad hypocritical. Why on earth, if the threat is so great, did these people not speak out when David Cameron and the then chancellor, George Osborne, launched their bogus golden era in UK-China relations, promising ever closer ties? Where were they in 2015 when Dave took Xi down the pub for a pint? Providing the crisps, perhaps.

Even if they had not yet heard of the brutal treatment of Xinjiangs Uighurs, were they truly unaware of Chinas long record of oppression and social engineering in Tibet? Were they themselves among those blind free world decision-makers who wilfully disregarded the anti-democratic nature of Communist rule, Chinas predatory trade and debt practices, its industrial espionage, intellectual property theft and systematic persecution of dissidents, writers, academics, Christians and journalists?

Its hard to imagine that such eminent parliamentarians were oblivious. So why did they not object earlier? One possible explanation is that Duncan Smith, Davis, Fox, Paterson and other new-minted human rights defenders were ardent Brexiters, before and after the 2016 referendum. Their overriding priority was pushing Brexit through and for this the appearance of a friendly relationship with economically powerful China was crucial.

A key argument perhaps the key argument of Brexit ministers and their supporters was that Britain, freed from the EUs shackles, would forge independent, mutually beneficial and respectful trade, business and investment relationships with the worlds leading powers, principally the US and China. Predictions that leaving the EU would, on the contrary, weaken Britains sovereign control and freedom of action were rejected out of hand.

Yet now, six months after Britain formally left the EU and only a few short months away from a calamitous no-deal crash, what is Britains position? It is some way off even a basic trade pact with the EU. Desperate to cut a deal with Washington, its ability to resist unpalatable US demands declines by the day. Donald Trump is even pushing Britain to sign a loyalty oath, giving preference to the US over China. He wants UK backing for his dangerous new cold war narrative. Therein lies another huge trap.

In China itself, meanwhile, Britain faces a vastly more powerful, scornful opponent that lacks respect for its values, believes (with some justice) that it can exploit British economic, financial and political neediness to get its own way, and which does as it likes in Hong Kong as evidenced by last weeks withering tirade from its London ambassador, Liu Xiaoming.

How to understand the contradiction between the hard Tory Brexiters previous positive take on China as a partner for global Britain and their open hostility now? Its not difficult. As international trade secretary, for example, Fox boasted in 2018 of cutting lucrative deals during successive visits to Beijing. This, they said, was the future. In their blind fervour for Brexit at any cost, they did not think things through.

Britain requires balanced, boundaried relationships. Yet thanks to these short sighted Tories, the UK is more limply beholden than ever to not one but two overbearing foreign powers with hegemonistic tendencies and nasty tempers. Too late they realise their mistake.

Read more:

The Observer view on post-Brexit UK-China relations - The Guardian