Sunak Softens Truss’ China Stance, Dubs Beijing ‘Systemic Challenge’
A member of staff stands behind flags as officials arrive for the UK-China High Level Financial Services Roundtable at the Bank of China head office building in Beijing on July 22, 2016
Oleg BurunovMarch 2021 saw the publication of then-British PM Boris Johnson’s Integrated Review of Defense and Foreign Policy, in which China was classed as a “systemic competitor.”UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has dubbed China as a “systemic challenge”, in an apparent U-turn following his predecessor Liz Truss’ pledge to call the PRC a “threat”.Speaking at the G20 Summit in Bali on Tuesday, Sunak underscored that his view on China is “straightforward”.“I think that China unequivocally poses a systemic threat – well, a systemic challenge – to our values, and our interests, and is undoubtedly the biggest state-based threat to our economic security, let me put it that way. That’s how I think about China. That’s what I said over the summer. That’s why it’s important that we take the powers that we need to defend ourselves against that,” the British PM pointed out.
US-China Tensions Over TaiwanLiz Truss Launches Verbal Attack on China as She Defends Nancy Pelosi’s ‘Right’ to Visit Taiwan4 August, 05:49 GMTHe declined to say whether he intended to re-categorize China as a threat, adding, “I think that view, by the way, is highly aligned with our allies.”
“So if you look at the US national security strategy that was published just a couple of weeks ago, and if you look at how they describe their view of China and how to deal with it, I think you’ll find that it’s very similar to how I’ve just described it to you,” Sunak noted.
Sunak-Xi Meeting Cancelled
Downing Street has meanwhile said in a statement that a planned meeting between Sunak and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 Summit had been canceled.This was preceded by reports about such meeting, where Sunak could have called for a “frank and constructive relationship” with China, among other things. The 42-year-old could have been the first British PM to meet the Chinese president since 2018.
No 10 earlier stated that China had "fundamentally different values to ours", but added that issues like the Ukraine conflict could not be addressed without "coordinated action by the world's major economies," including China.
Britain’s position on China has changed significantly in less than a decade. Back in 2015, then-UK Prime Minister David Cameron said ahead of a state visit to London by Chinese President Xi Jinping that bilateral trade and investment can benefit further from a “golden era” in their relationship.
China Steps Up Pressure on UK to Relinquish Control Over Falklands, Citing UN Charter8 February, 17:53 GMTSubsequent years, however, saw the two countries start to bicker over issues pertaining to the Chinese tech giant Huawei and Hong Kong.In July 2020, growing pressure from the US and Tory MPs forced then-PM Boris Johnson to order the removal of all Huawei equipment from his country’s 5G networks by 2027 amid concerns that the Chinese government could use the company to spy on foreign countries, something that the firm has repeatedly rejected.Separately, No 10 is uneasy over a national security law being enacted in Hong Kong, a former UK colony, in late June 2020. Beijing and the Hong Kong government argue that the new law only serves the purpose of safeguarding China’s national security, while respecting people’s liberties as well as the city’s special status. A whole array of Western countries, however, claim that the document purportedly undermines Hong Kong’s autonomy, which China pledged under the joint declaration with the UK in 1984.
Sunak & Truss Stance on China
Speaking to a UK media outlet when she served as British PM, Liz Truss outlined her highly critical stance on Beijing, particularly pledging to block Chinese involvement from UK critical national infrastructure.She also reportedly wanted to rewrite the so-called “integrated review”, in which former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson labeled China a “systemic competitor.” According to a British media outlet, Truss was thought to upgrade China to something closer to an overall “threat”, even though the exact wording was never known.
Opinion & AnalysisClosing China-Backed Cultural Institutes Would Put UK’s Universities in Financial Pinch: Observers11 October, 14:57 GMTSunak, for his part, vowed during his election campaign this past summer that if he becomes the prime minister, he would order the closure of all 30 of the UK’s Confucius Institutes, which promote the teaching of Chinese language and culture in Britain.Additionally, he promised that if he wins the leadership race, a NATO-style alliance to contain China will be set up, along with moves to influence international standards on cybersecurity and help British businesses and universities counter Chinese industrial espionage with the help of MI5.The 42-year-old also pledged that he would “work” with US President Joe Biden and other world leaders “to transform the West’s resilience to the threat China poses.”
