Angus Robertson has been warned that he could be used by China as a “useful idiot” in a high-stakes game of global politics. The External Affairs Secretary and a team of aides are jetting off to Beijing for the first SNP Government visit since 2019.
During those four years, the UK’s relationship with China has disintegrated over a civil rights crackdown in Hong Kong, spying and espionage in the UK and China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There are also fears the US and China are heading inexorably towards an armed conflict over Taiwan.
Against this tense and politically delicate backdrop, foreign policy expert Stuart Crawford – who was once the SNP‘s defence advisor – asked of Robertson’s taxpayer-funded five-day visit: “What the hell has it got to do with him?”
“The danger is that he could be seen by the Chinese as a kind of ‘useful idiot’,” he added. “Visits like this give the Chinese Government a certain amount of credibility although Angus is really…