LONDON – Rishi Sunak on Monday sought to tone down his rhetoric on China, cautiously opening the door for further talks with President Xi Jinping.
In his first major speech on foreign policy after becoming UK Prime Minister, Sunak declared a “so-called ‘golden age'” in relations between Britain and China, amid rising tensions between the West and Beijing.
But speaking in London on Monday evening, Sunak said it would be wrong to “simply ignore China’s importance in world affairs” and that Britain and its allies’ approach to Beijing must involve “diplomacy and engagement”.
And he said the UK would “stand up to its competitors, not with grandiose rhetoric but strong pragmatism”, taking a dig at the hardline stance of her predecessor Liz Truss.
A “golden age” in UK–China relations was heralded in 2015 by former Prime Minister David Cameron and his Chancellor, George Osborne, both keen to attract more Chinese investment to the UK.
In the same year, President Xi was welcomed to the UK for an official state visit, while Osborne and the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, both traveled to China to promote investment.
Ties since then have been marred by concerns about Beijing’s crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, its treatment of the Uyghur Muslim community in Xinjiang and the security implications of allowing Chinese companies to build or buy critical infrastructure in Britain.
In his speech on Monday, Sunak said Britain’s approach to China needed to “evolve” from the soft approach of the early part of the century and criticized a “naive view” of trade. [with China] Will lead to social and political reform in the country.
He said that China actually “presents a systemic challenge to our values and interests, a challenge that grows more acute as it moves toward ever more totalitarianism.” The prime minister this week directly criticized Beijing’s crackdown on anti-lockdown protesters and the attack on BBC journalist Ed Lawrence by police.
But he said Britain should not “rely on simplistic Cold War rhetoric” and added: “We cannot simply ignore China’s importance in world affairs – on issues such as global economic stability or climate change.”
“The US, Canada, Australia, Japan and many others understand this too. So together we will manage this intensifying competition through diplomacy and engagement.”
Sunak’s speech signals a willingness to engage in dialogue with Beijing, particularly on issues such as climate change, and a marked shift from the hawkish truce.
He began laying out the new approach during his visit to Indonesia for the G20 summit, where he was due to hold a bilateral meeting with Xi, however it was canceled at the 11th hour. During the summit, the PM indicated that he had abandoned plans to classify China as a “threat” in an upcoming review of UK foreign and defense policy.
Sunak’s stance marks a significant softening of the position he briefly took during the hotly contested Tory leadership contest in the summer, where he described China as the “biggest threat to the security and prosperity of Britain and the world”. In what was described as a futile attempt to beat the truce. Earlier, under Boris Johnson as chancellor, he called for closer economic ties with Beijing.
Critics have accused him of reversing his position, with China suspecting his soft stance within the Tory party.
Former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith said on Monday “the British government has tied itself in knots” over China and Sunak’s stated approach of ‘strong pragmatism’ “sounds more and more like appeasement.”
David Lammy, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, said Sunak’s speech was “as thin as a crowd” and that “once again, the Conservative government is hedging its rhetoric on China.”