Beijing has spent £685 billion since 2005 wooing Commonwealth countries, according to an estimate from the Henry Jackson Society think-tank. Ian Fleming’s characters James Bond and his American pal Felix Leiter regarded Commonwealth countries almost as home turf. Military influence is growing, too.A newspaper in Fiji, another Commonwealth country, disclosed in April that China had trained Fiji’s two most senior military officers. And all this diplomatic clout is, understandably, peeling away Commonwealth countries that once reliably sided with Britain. Vaccination rates in most Commonwealth countries are low — under two per cent in Nigeria, for example, and only five per cent in Kenya.

Source: The Nation December 04, 2021 00:07 UTC