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The Telegraph

The outgoing head of MI6 has said the West “got it wrong” on China. Sir Alex Younger warned that a major mistake was the assumption, held for the past two decades, that the Chinese Communist Party would become more like the West as it “matured”. He said: “The idea that as they matured and became richer they were going to become more like us is for the birds. “I think you’re seeing a steady but definite ideological divergence taking place. There will be at least two dominant value systems on one planet into the medium term and that’s just a fact and it’s where we are going.” Sir Alex warned that while it was important to pick up China over malicious cyber attacks, it was important to be able to live alongside each other peacefully, rather than in a state of cold war. “I am not a Manichean, I don’t think it’s black or white, and that’s why I reject this cold war idea,” he told The Financial Times.