Former UK prime minister says US may regret ceding world stage to China and condemns ‘hypocritical’ JD Vance speech

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Democracy across the globe is under threat from the retreat of Donald Trump’s US into isolationism, and its likely replacement by China on the world stage, John Major has said.

The former UK prime minister, who rarely offers direct opinion on contemporary politics, used an interview with BBC Radio 4 to call Trump’s administration unlike anything he had seen before – and to warn that Washington may live to regret ceding global leadership to a more autocratic power.