How U.S., allies can confront the China challenge

Xi Jinping should be losing sleep: Across the globe, America’s allies are pushing back hard on Beijing. The past 10 days have seen revealing shifts for many allies that are deeply intertwined with both the United States and China. The cozy status quo is disintegrating: British officials have announced that they will exclude Huawei from the UK’s 5G network, called out China’s “gross, egregious human rights abuses” against Uighurs, and suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong. They may even work with a fellow U.S. ally, Japan, on a 5G alternative.

Meanwhile, Japan is moving ahead with plans to pay firms to relocate production from China, and Canada’s Parliament is studying Magnitsky sanctions against Beijing. But these allies all want to maintain their massive economic relationships with the world’s most populous country, and they certainly don’t want to take orders from the United States. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted this week that he refuses to be “pushed into a position of becoming a knee-jerk Sinophobe.”

Read the full story and more in POLITICO China Watcher.