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54
Former UK civil service chief calls China's Xi Jinping a ‘dictator’ over Taiwan threats, raises threat of Russia starting further conflicts in Europe beyond Ukraine (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org to c/europe@feddit.org
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The former head of the UK’s civil service has described the Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a “dictator” and said Donald Trump had put “helpful pressure” on Europe to increase defence spending.

Simon Case, who served as the cabinet secretary until December, when he stepped down on health grounds, said China had sent a clear message to “prepare for serious conflict” in Taiwan.

[...]

The UK has committed to spend the equivalent of 2.6% of GDP in 2027, and it and other Nato members have signed up to increasing spending to 5% by 2035 on militaries and related security.

[...]

Case said: “There’s some actually quite helpful pressure, if you ask me – [this is a] slightly unpopular view – from the White House about us pulling our fingers out in Europe and actually stepping up to the plate on our defence spending."

“But the reason that matters is because President Xi has publicly set out his timetable for, as he would put it, reunifying Taiwan. We’re incredibly bad at reading what dictators say in public. We spend millions of pounds on secret intelligence, which is absolutely amazing, but we’re really bad at missing what they actually say in public, which is, this is the timetable at which I want everybody to be ready for us to prepare for serious conflict.”

[...]

Case also raised the threat of Russia starting further conflicts in Europe, beyond Ukraine.

[...]

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[–] oneser@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Can someone explain the role of this person's titles of civil service and cabinet secretary, and how it might influence their knowledge of the situation? Because this sounds like planned warmongering and defence lobbying without more context.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_the_Home_Civil_Service

In general use, the term civil servant in the United Kingdom does not include all public sector employees. Although there is no fixed legal definition, the term is usually defined as a "servant of the Crown working in a civil capacity who is not the holder of a political (or judicial) office; the holder of certain other offices in respect of whose tenure of office special provision has been made; [or] a servant of the Crown in a personal capacity paid from the Civil List".[2]

As such, the civil service does not include government ministers (who are politically appointed); members of the British Armed Forces; police officers; officers of local government authorities; employees of some non-departmental public bodies;[3] officers or staff of either of the Houses of Parliament;[4][5] employees of the National Health Service (NHS); or staff of the Royal Household.[6] As of the end of March 2021 there were 484,880 civil servants in the Civil Service, an increase of 6.23 per cent on the previous year.[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_Secretary_(United_Kingdom)

The cabinet secretary is the most senior civil servant in the United Kingdom and is based in the Cabinet Office. The person in this role acts as the senior policy adviser to the prime minister and Cabinet, and as the secretary to the Cabinet is responsible to all ministers for the efficient running of government. The role is currently occupied by Sir Chris Wormald.[

Intelligence - The cabinet secretary is responsible for overseeing the intelligence services and their relationship to the government, though since 2002 this responsibility has been delegated to a full-time role (initially as Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator, now the National Security Adviser), with the cabinet secretary focussing on civil service reforms to help deliver the government's policy programme.

So apparently any knowledge to that effect does not come from his role as head of the civil service, which is joined with the role of cabinet secretary. As cabinet secretary he must have had close ties with the intelligence services and as key organizer and advisor of the prime minister and ministries he must have had access to all sorts of sensitive information.

However the question is, why a former government official is raising these points rather than the government itself. Obviously calling the head of the Chinese government a "dictator" is not acceptable diplomatically. Still i am sure China understands quite well that this is what the UK government wants to communicate.

[–] oneser@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

Thanks! I would agree with your summary largely

One key thing to add from the article:

In February Case took over as the chair of the government-funded “Team Barrow”, which is described as a “partnership between the government, Westmorland and Furness council, and BAE Systems” to support the local economy, which is heavily dependent on BAE’s nuclear submarine shipyard.

I would argue that the comments can be taken lightly and not as an "unofficial" government position, given the above point and that the comments were made at a BAE systems funded event.