Instead of pursuing a comparatively more independent foreign policy, its leadership has simply opted for switching one patron with another. Brussels demanded full compliance with the bloc\u2019s domestic policies while Washington demands the same when it comes to its foreign policy. This development shouldn\u2019t have been surprising since the author observed last month how \u201cMI6 Might Become The CIA\u2019s Proxy For Stopping Europe From Moving Towards Russia<\/a>\u201c, with this latest move just being the next more public step in that direction.<\/p>\n The Khashoggi Incident seems to have effected change in how the UK perceives its traditional ally, at least superficially, and it speaks to what might be a forthcoming pressure campaign against the Kingdom on a similar such \u201csoft power\u201d basis as Western countries seek to punish it for strengthening ties with their\u00a0Russian<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Chinese<\/a>\u00a0rivals like it\u2019s done in recent years. Trump doesn\u2019t seem too keen on this considering that he needs Saudi Arabia\u2019s support to \u201ccontain\u201d Iran, but a Biden Presidency might take this opportunity and run with it.<\/p>\n Missing from the list of countries where the sanctioned individuals are from is China, which\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0just hours before the UK\u2019s announcement that \u201cBritain will have to bear the consequences if it treats China as a hostile country\u201d. Although this was said in reaction to the UK\u2019s possible move to restrict Huawei\u2019s access to the country\u2019s domestic market and following similar threats in response to London\u2019s flirtation with granting residency to anti-government individuals from Hong Kong, the timing might not be coincidental.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t a secret that the UK was considering so-called \u201chumanitarian sanctions\u201d after it passed the \u201cMagnitsky Amendment\u201d in 2018, but it had hitherto been unclear exactly who it would target. The ever-intensifying\u00a0New<\/a>\u00a0Cold<\/a>\u00a0War<\/a>\u00a0between the US and China that entered an unprecedentedly fierce stage since the start of the year made it reasonable enough to assume that some Chinese officials might have been on the list seeing as how Britain\u2019s \u201cbig brother\u201d from \u201cacross the pond\u201d is targeting some of them in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.<\/p>\n The UK, at least at this point in time, knows better than to \u201cpoke the dragon\u201d due to these two countries\u2019 very close economic ties, but it can\u2019t be guaranteed that it won\u2019t one day \u201ccross the Rubicon\u201d by targeting Chinese officials in order to please its new American patron. It would likely only do so in the scenario that the US offers it some tangible economic incentives to cushion the damage from any reciprocal Chinese moves, which might be exactly what CIA strategists are now plotting after London got the ball rolling with its recent sanctions.<\/p>\n Source:<\/strong>\u00a0OneWorld<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Johnson](\"https:\/\/orientalreview.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Johnson-and-Trump.jpg\")
<\/a>It was predictable enough that the UK would target Russia considering the fake news scandal a few years ago surrounding former spy Sergei Skripal\u2019s failed assassination that London decided to blame on Moscow, and so-called \u201crogue states\u201d like Myanmar and North Korea are natural targets whenever a country wants to virtue signal its commitment to so-called \u201chuman rights\u201d, but Saudi Arabia\u2019s inclusion wasn\u2019t foreseen by many considering that the UK sells lots of armaments to the Wahhabi Kingdom and supports its War on Yemen.<\/p>\n