Jeremy HUNT
‘There are the risks of a relationship with China developing into a new Cold War’
Jeremy Hunt embarked on his week-long tour of Africa with a Kissinger book in his hand and his “secret weapon” on his arm – his wife, Lucia. Anyone who saw the trip as an audition for No10 would think Lucia, at least, passed with flying colours. Effortlessly charming, photogenic and considerate with diplomats and locals alike, it is not hard to see why Mrs Hunt is an asset as the Foreign Secretary still struggles to shake off his Charterhouse head boy manner.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hunt said Lucia was the “perfect partner” who he would always want her by his side in a negotiation for her “toughness”.
Her Chinese heritage helps – even if he famously made the mistake of saying she was Japanese on his first trip to China as Foreign Secretary.
She helps him build relationships with “foreigners, and she is herself foreign,” he has said. One observer said Lucia’s role could be key if or when Mr Hunt made his bid for the leadership.
“He relaxes when she’s here,” they said. “He’s more himself. She could end up being his greatest asset.”
Born Lucia Guo in Xian, she met Mr Hunt, 11 years her senior, in 2008 through Hotcourses, the education publishing business he co-founded and later sold for £14million.
He proposed a year later and they celebrated with a traditional Chinese ceremony in Xian.
It was Hotcourses that previously brought them to Kenya, a country for which they appear to have a genuine affinity. Mr Hunt’s company funded the educational elements of Nyumbani, a charity for children with HIV and Aids in Kenya.
While Lucia is a full-time mother to the couple’s children – Jack, eight; Anna, seven; and Eleanor, four – she is a director of the couple’s property company.
Partners of past foreign secretaries have gone on official trips abroad before, but Mrs Hunt’s central role in the trip is more unusual; she has been happy to pose for photographs and was at her husband’s side as he planted a tree at the British embassy in Ethiopia in memory of the victims of the March Ethiopian Airlines disaster.
She put thought into her wardrobe, packing colourful but simple clothing without a high-end brand in sight and minimal jewellery. She showed genuine empathy when visiting children with HIV and Aids in a western Nairobi slum.
Between them, the couple are fluent in English, Chinese, Japanese, and French. Their children are being raised to speak Mandarin Chinese so they can talk to their grandparents, who do not speak English.
Mr Hunt started learning Chinese too but gave up because his “job got too much” – although he is quick to add that he will try again but only when he leaves politics.
His role as Foreign Secretary has taken him to 29 countries in under a
year, including Senegal, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. On his various tours, Mr Hunt has raised the subjects of media freedom, the persecution of Christians and climate change. He praised Greta Thunberg, the Swedish schoolgirl eco-campaigner but said he would “strongly disagree” with his children if they decided to join the climate change protests.
Mr Hunt said he had never been on a march and described himself as a “card-carrying Thatcherite” in his student days who supported Mrs Thatcher during the miners’ strike.
With the backdrop of Theresa May’s decision to award a 5G contract to Huawei making headlines back home, Mr Hunt used the trip to discuss China’s economic presence in Africa, where it is investing in infrastructure as part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road project, expressing concern about China’s rise, warning: “There are the risks of a relationship with China developing into a new Cold War.”
He added that “statesmanship on both sides” was needed to avoid it. “We have to find a way of living together with China,” he said. “That means having to understand where China is coming from and they have to understand where we are coming from. We have to understand their desire for prosperity and they have to understand for us our values are not negotiable.”
Asked if having a Chinese wife aided him in his dealings with China, Mr Hunt said he hopes Beijing will see him as “someone who is willing to give China a fair hearing”.
He spent his downtime on the trip brushing up on Beijing’s diplomacy by reading Henry Kissinger’s On China.
Mr Hunt said he “made it his job” to read as many biographies of entrepreneurs as possible to compensate for the fact he hadn’t done an MBA – hence the book by Harvard alumnus Kissinger. For her part, Lucia chose Michelle Obama’s memoir as her book of choice for the trip, although neither will be drawn into any public discussions of leadership at this stage.
And of course the subject of Brexit still follows Mr Hunt. He appeared to open the door to the Government finding a compromise with Labour on its demands for a customs union.
“If we could find something that delivers Labour the benefits of the customs union while giving us the flexibility to negotiate our own trade deals, then I think there is some potential in that,” he said.
“Personally I am not a supporter of the customs union but I am resigned to the fact that the final Brexit deal will probably have elements in it I don’t personally like.
“You can’t go into any kind of discussions with other parties and say: We’ve got 65 red lines and we’re not prepared to cross any of them.”
Mr Hunt said binding votes on different Brexit options in Parliament is an option if Labour talks fail.
As for the next few months, he said Brexit has been so full of “surprises” that he would not even rule out the EU reopening the Withdrawal Agreement.
Asked if he would prefer Mr Kissinger or his wife at his side in a negotiation, he said he would want both – “Lucia for her toughness and Henry for his wisdom”. Depending on what happens in the Conservative party over the next few months, perhaps he may be in a position to make the choice.