Businessman and former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg was forced to apologise at a major business event in Singapore for statements made by his friend and former UK prime minister Boris Johnson criticising China.
Johnson was invited as the guest speaker at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, held earlier this week. During his speech, Johnson described China as a “coercive autocracy”, much to the apathy of Asian businessmen and diplomats gathered.
Since Johnson was invited by Bloomberg to the forum, the latter had to bear the brunt of attendees feeling insulted and offended by the Tory leader’s remarks.
Bloomberg clarified that the statements made by Johnson were “his thoughts and his thoughts alone”, before adding, “To those of you who were upset and concerned by what the speaker said, you have my apologies.”
According to the version released by Johnson’s spokesperson, the former PM in his speech said, “Let’s look at Russia and China. The two former communist tyrannies in which power has once again been concentrated in the hands of a single rule.”
“Two monocultural states that have been traditionally hostile to immigration and that are becoming increasingly nationalist in their attitudes.”
Johnson added that as two permanent UN security council members, China and Russia enabled each other to “show a candid disregard for the rule of international law, and two countries that in the last year have demonstrated the immense limitations of their political systems by the disastrous mistakes they have made.”
This is not the first time that Johnson has targeted China. Last week, when the Conservative leader was in New Delhi for a programme, he toed a similar line.
Johnson said democracies such as India and UK bounced back after the pandemic but autocracies and closed societies such as China were still grappling with the pandemic.
“When the leader of a coercive autocracy embarks on a disastrous policy in which his ego is fatally engaged, there is nothing and no one that can stop him. And that’s why democracy matters.”
(With inputs from agencies)
