Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong today, Paddy Ashdown, former Leader of the Liberal Democrats, will warn that the rising power of China will come into conflict with the United States as they falter under Trump.

He predicts that the most likely place for a major global conflict to start is now in the Pacific as China is on the rise and America is on the fall.

He also criticises the way the UK ran Hong Kong saying: “British rule in Hong Kong was economically successful. But politically it was shameful,” as the UK only payed lip service to democracy whilst it controlled the territory .

He warns that post-Brexit the UK may be tempted into trade deals with China that forget the promise made by the British that Hong Kong  “will never have to walk alone”. Paddy will say that: “This is not a promise that can be lightly broken because it proves inconvenient to a British Government obsessed with finding trade deals because it wishes to be outside Europe.”