As appalling as his performance was, I kind of feel sorry for the guy. Clearly he is required to drink Xi's Kool Aid like everyone else in the system and he actually seemed a reasonable guy / representative to the UK before he went down that route. The feeling of the UK population towards the CCP right now is probably not too far off the US even if we might be more reserved here; the Government's response on the NSL has been robust and commendable. So no wonder they see the UK as a target.