Becoming technologically dependent upon China puts the western world at strategic risk, which we have every reason to believe China will eventually cash in on when the time is right. When they cash in on it, it will not be for the advancement of liberal democracy or basic human dignity. As reckless and shameful as American policy has been of late, it continues to be the most powerful benefactor of liberal democracy the world over. I do not believe that China is belligerent. I know that it is ideologically opposed to liberal democracy. It’s apparently hard for many westerners to believe that there are those who truly do not believe in democratic ideals, but there are and they are growing in power and ambition.
It is naive to believe that our current state of affairs is guaranteed and one need only worry about maximizing the economic prosperity of a society that they see as guaranteed to be democratic. Do you think that millions of people died in WW2 in the name of trade regimes? Or was there a more substantial threat that was being addressed? Is that threat wholly eradicated, and will it always be so?
I don't see any evidence of that.
> I know that it is ideologically opposed to liberal democracy.
The Chinese government doesn't care about the existence or nonexistence of liberal democracy in the UK, US, or really anywhere other than in China itself. They're not out to destroy democracy in the UK. They care about their interests, which in regards to the UK are mostly economic.
> Do you think that millions of people died in WW2 in the name of trade regimes?
The CCP fought on the same side as the US and UK in WWII.
> Is that threat wholly eradicated, and will it always be so?
It was largely eradicated for a long time, though the far right is making a comeback in many countries. The major threat I see now, however, is the increasing conflict between the US and China, and the extreme recklessness of American foreign policy.
The UK conducts extensive trade with both the US and China, so the potential for trade disputes with either country is there. At the moment, I think it's fair to say that a major trade dispute with the US is more likely than a trade dispute with China.
> Should, god forbid, widespread warfare break out once again (as it has since tribal days up until the last 80 years or so), any westerner with a modicum of understanding of Putin’s or Xi’s ideal world ought to be on the side of the US/UK.
Whatever you think of China, you can't claim that it's been more belligerent than the US in the past several decades. Blindly backing the US and giving in to its demands (backed by sanctions against its own allies, as in the case of Germany) to cut off ties with China and Russia might not be the best way to promote global peace.