Racing Obama — UK Schmoozing China in a Copy-Cat Trip

David Cameron arrived in China in November 2010 with Britain's largest-ever business delegation in tow, on a 36-hour sprint to turn a "steady relationship" into signed deals. Stronger commercial ties with Beijing were one of his government's stated priorities, and the pitch was straightforward: British firms needed an export-led recovery, and China was where the exports would go.

The timing was delicious. Obama was touring Asia the same week, making the same pitch to the same region. The two leaders were, in effect, racing each other to Beijing's door — a small symbol of how completely the economic map had been redrawn. A decade earlier, summits were about managing China. Now they were about selling to it.

There was a cost, and the Wall Street Journal named it plainly: the cozier the commercial relationship, the quieter London would be about China's economic policies and its human rights record. Trade with an export-driven China would also stay limited as long as Beijing kept betting on foreign buyers rather than its own consumers.

The pattern held for years afterward: everyone courted China, everyone took the deals, and everyone paid in silence. The copy-cat trip was not the story. The story was that there was nothing left to copy — everyone was already doing it.