“When anger rises,” wrote Chinese philosopher poet Confucius in the fifth century before Christ, “think of the consequences.”

Today, belatedly, we are all thinking of the consequences measured out since the angry vote of June 23, 2016. Theresa May’s visit to China is particularly illustrative.

Her visit represents, in a very concrete sense, the sad decline that has already happened to our national self-esteem and our confidence to influence the world towards ideas beyond mere economics.

The kind of ideas of which we British used to be so awfully proud.

When David Cameron visited China in November 2010, it was a trip made with very similar goals - winning billions of trade for the UK.

(And note well, by the way, dear Brexiteers, that there was nothing about our membership of the European Union that prevented us from setting forth solo to gain influence with the Chinese. The idea that the UK is now somehow on the verge of freedom from European Union shackles is as pathetically untrue as the £350million a week the NHS won’t be seeing any time soon.)

These days Theresa May can’t afford to be fussy about grabbing the hand that grabbed the pussy

Cameron’s visit to China was overshadowed by robust rows over Britain’s status as a peer who wouldn’t be pushed around, and China’s appalling record on human rights.

Michael Gove, who had previously labelled the Chinese regime a “police state”, attended and refused to cave in to Beijing insistence that he not wear a commemorative poppy, lest it seem an unwelcome reminder to China of the colonial Opium Wars.

And David Cameron conspicuously refused to kowtow to a Chinese government hostile to democracy; instead lecturing them on the benefits of multi-party democracy and basic freedoms, including a free press and workers’ rights.

It was a principled but costly stand. He came back from Beijing with next to nothing.

Was it a catastrophe? No. It might have been seriously unhelpful, economically, but a catastrophe? No. Moreover, it said something about Britain’s place in the world, as a sovereign and free nation, that we felt we were in a position to, quite rightfully, take the moral high ground with a country like China, despite all its latent power and resources.

The following year, Cameron knowingly compounded the stance by hosting a very public meeting with the Dalai Lama, infuriating Beijing.

In the following three years, David Cameron never gave up on trying to woo the Chinese, up to and including a quasi State Visit for the Premier Li Keqiang in 2015. But that wooing was always accompanied by the sense that there were, if not more important, then at least other important things that Britain wanted to say.

Read more: The time David Cameron kissed Carla Bruni

Little has changed in terms of China and the abuses we thought so important back in 2010. Human Rights Watch, the organisation that monitors these issues around the world, is scathing about the state of China under President Xi Jinping:

“Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, who will remain in power until 2022 and possibly beyond, the outlook for fundamental human rights, including freedoms of expression, assembly, association and religion, remains dire,” their report for 2017 reads.

And so it’s right to ask ourselves now, as Theresa May flies off to China with 50 big cheeses from British industry, would we dare to be so bold as to antagonise them about human rights today? And if not, why not?

What’s changed about us, the UK, in the last seven years that has shifted the emphasis so clearly from one of moral superiority to economic supplication.

We all know the answer. Brexit.

The point is not whether or not we should engage with the Chinese. Of course we should.

There is no denying the immense influence they have today in our globalised world, nor the exponential impact they will have in all our tomorrows.

But it’s our willingness to try to influence the Chinese, in the full knowledge that there is a price to pay, that has evaporated.

As members of the European Union, the biggest trading bloc on earth, our influence with the Chinese across not just trade but human rights, was one of genuine strength. We could afford the great luxury of principles. Today, not so much.

The issue of human rights has barely flickered on the radar of this visit. Nor will Theresa May have the courage to do anything that comes close to antagonising the Chinese - so desperate is she for a positive trade result.

It’s the same motivation that had her gushing forth to Donald Trump. These days she can’t afford to be fussy about grabbing the hand that grabbed the pussy.

© Rex/Shutterstock

Mrs May’s mission to China today is a not a sign of our newfound strength, but a sign of Britain’s weaker place in the world post-Brexit.

As she herself writes in today’s FT:

“Issues such as overcapacity, intellectual property and trade rules have a direct impact on the livelihoods of British workers and their counterparts around the world. And just as with global challenges from international terrorism to modern slavery they are best tackled not through unilateral action but global dialogue and co-operation.”

Not unilateral action. Strange then, that we are embarking on the biggest unilateral adventure in this country’s history; going it alone at just the time we need the strength our partnership in Europe gives us.

The European Union was never a perfect organisation. But our membership of it amplifies our influence, bolsters our importance, gives us heft in a world reshaping itself at a terrifying pace around new economic superpowers.

Alone, we risk a great diminution of all the things we cherished as the very fabric of what it means to be British.

To turn again to the words of Confucius: “Better a diamond with a flaw, than a pebble without.”

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