source: manchester.ac.uk

Editor's note: William Spiers is a TMTPost columnist and CEO of Joint Venture Business of Spearhead Associates. He is also an expert on UK-China business relations, human psychology and cross-culture social and business differences.

In the western world 2020 means spot on or clear perfect vision. Unfortunately, for most of us the year 2020 has brought confusion and uncertainty on a large scale, probably the most internationally since the Japanese War of Aggression and World War II, some 75 years ago.

In the UK those three years running up until 2020 was busily filled talking, but not doing a lot, about Brexit . Nothing else seem to matter and with Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister he was adamant that Brexit should be completed , and by January 1, 2021. Boris is by nature a very Churchilllian character, optimistic and believing that every problem, no matter what, is surmountable with resilience and a smile.

After having a landslide victory in the October election when the country gave him an absolute mandate to take the country in his direction using his election strap line to “Get Brexit Done”. Unfortunately, he had no idea what problems were coming just around the corner.

When the corona virus first struck in Wuhan, only people who had first-hand experience of SARS in 2002 realised how devastating this new virus may be. China and most Asian countries were quick to act and either strictly monitored people movement or shut down borders hopefully to contain an uncontainable sickness. The majority in the western world likened the corona virus to just a more serious flu than normal. How wrong everyone was shown to be.

The UK Government initially felt that to let it spread naturally and gain “herd immunity” which would be the answer, not knowing how differently this virus would behave. So cutting a very long story short the full impact of COVID-19 became suddenly clear and a full lockdown was implemented that had devastating effects on all businesses and people’s morale.The Government then supported many business by paying 80% of staff wages, known as “furloughing”staff. This was done on the expectation of a fast economic advice.

By an extraordinary turn of events Boris Johnson the became a serious victim of the virus ending up having intensive care unit nursing. Very touch and go but he survived.

It is now recognized that the situation will cost the UK between 300 and 500 Billion Pounds and it is recognized now that the recovery will be slow. So how does this leave the Brexit situation? Well, It makes the government and it’s negotiator more determined to complete Brexit by Jan1 2021. From the UK point of view it will have more control over its destiny. It is declared today that all import taxes will be reduced from Jan 1 thus, in turn, also giving Uk exports a more competitive advantage in the world. Naturally the European negotiators are pushing for a delay.

In the background we have the unsure situation between China and the USA both politically and in their economic and trade policies , so a balance needs to be found by UK politicians not to be overtly in favour of one or the other.

The UK wishes to trade with both of the largest superpowers and because of the common language and history between the USA and UK many politicians were inclined towards the USA, but living through the “Trump Era” many of these politicians have realized how crazy it would be to blindly follow a country with very unstable decision making processes.

There are many politicians who know China well, as far as any foreigner can, of course, and have pushed for more to have an open mind towards China. More and more are realizing how important China is to the UK and that the UK should not be a non-thinking puppet to the USA.

China and the USA have their own individual trade policies which the UK has to be aware of, so the sooner “Brexit is done” the UK can tread its own path, outside of EU constraints, and trade individually and fairly with both countries.

UK needs China and the US, but importantly China and the US needs the ever-improving technology coming out of the UK.

Having said all that, one day is not only a long time in politics, COVID-19 in one day could change the whole way we look at things. So, who really knows, but time will tell. In the meantime – Keep Safe.

(This article do not represent the editorial policy of TMTPost but rather views of the columnist. Anyone willing to contribtute and have specific expertise, please contact us at: english@tmtpost.com)