UK is still content to stay in US' pocket: China Daily editorial

The rarity of his public appearances has apparently not given MI6 chief Richard Moore's July 19 speech at a think tank event in Prague its expected originality.

Although it is reportedly the only public appearance the head of the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service plans to make this year, Moore used it to parrot Washington's China threat cliches, rather than focusing on the real threats to the UK. The country is blindly allowing itself to be used as a pawn in the United States' geopolitical game in both Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

In the speech, Moore claimed that China is "absolutely complicit" in the Ukraine crisis, trying to "steal" the research of British universities, and setting "data traps" when cooperating with other countries. As the Chinese embassy in the UK said in a subsequent readout, Moore's "accusations" against China are totally groundless and slanderous and malicious in nature. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns them.

Since he talked the same talk as Washington on the Ukraine crisis, it is natural that Moore felt unhappy with China on that issue. Out of the need to wear out Russia and control Europe, the US has not only brokered the conflict but also sought to protract it as long as possible. However, being neither the one that created the crisis nor a party to it, China has consistently called for peace talks and is committed to facilitating a political settlement of the issue. Compared with the US' one-sided stance, China's position on the Ukraine crisis has always been balanced.

Moore's comments are no surprise, the US club has been doing its utmost to discredit the peace plans put forward by China, as well as Indonesia, Brazil, India and African countries. Washington is well aware that these proposals, which prioritize a cease-fire and aim to secure a lasting agreement between the two belligerents, touch upon the crux of the issue.

The UK would do better to take a serious and objective look at what is really in its best interests rather than just aping the US and smearing genuine pro-peace efforts that the UK doesn't have the capacity to make.

It is time for countries such as the UK to liberate themselves from the bewitching fantasy Washington has spun for them that they cannot survive outside the protective umbrella of the US. Nations should realize that not only can they, but they would do better by not toeing the US' line as the world will be a more stable and peaceful place.

As for Moore's other smears they are easily dismissed by anyone without prejudice. China-UK scientific research cooperation is voluntary and mutually beneficial, Moore's attempt to sabotage the cooperation benefits neither side. And the so-called "data traps" are nothing more than malicious fabrications.

As the embassy's readout points out, China's exchanges and cooperation with other countries are aboveboard and upright. The international community is well aware which party is engaged in massive-scale monitoring, surveillance, and espionage and which countries are abetting it.