Just as we once controlled “concessions” in China we can expect to see China doing the same thing here. We are, after all, completely bankrupt and becoming ever more so, with China as our main creditor. The programme for the decentralization of the British state now underway could facilitate this by dividing Britain into economic zones run by devolved assemblies. These in turn could negotiate concessions with China and other international partners. Tariq Ali perhaps hinted at this in an interview about Scottish nationalism:
JF: Do you think British elites are worried about the prospect of independence?
TA: Sections of them probably are, because they will see it as a blow to British pretensions. But I think there may well be a section of the elite that might well say, Fine, it will save us money, it will stop the subsidies, etc, and Scotland doesn’t make much money anyway. This is the section of the elite which believes that the only way forward is effectively to sell the British economy and the cities of the South to the rich, to oligarchs from various nationalities, Ukrainian, Russian, Arab, etc, who dominate large parts of the financial markets in London today. That section of the elite, which thinks this is the future, won’t care at all, whatever they say in public.
26th March, 2014
The Bank of England has agreed a deal with the People’s Bank of China to make London a hub for Chinese currency dealing.
In These New Times 