Daily Telegraph economics editor Jeremy Warner opined on 19 January 2021 that "Pressure groups cannot dictate our relationship with China",[19] while the editorial board remarked on the same day on the same topic that "It was only five years ago that (Chancellor of the Exchequer) George Osborne proclaimed a golden era of Sino-UK relations, describing this country as Beijing's 'best partner in the West'. Given the crushing of democracy in Hong Kong, China's failure to be transparent about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its increasingly bellicose posturing against Taiwan, such optimism now looks hopelessly naive."[20]