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| Information photo: British and Chinese flags |
British Prime Minister Sunak has declared that the so-called golden age of UK-China relations is over and that Britain needs to change the way it deals with China.
Sunak, a former chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered his first foreign policy speech since becoming prime minister on Monday (28 November 2022) at an event in London’s financial district.
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| British Prime Minister Sunak delivered his first foreign policy speech as Prime Minister at an event in London’s financial district on November 28, 2022. (Reuters) |
“We recognize that China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests,” he said. As China moves toward a more authoritarian direction, this challenge will become even more acute. ”
“Let’s be clear, the so-called ‘golden age’ is over, and the naïve idea that trade will bring about social and political reform is gone,” Sunak said. ”
The Chinese side has not yet responded to the British prime minister‘s remarks.
Speaking at a financial forum in London last week, Chinese Ambassador to Britain Zheng Zeguang said: “There are people in the UK who are keen to trumpet the ‘China threat’ and demand restrictions on China-UK economic and trade ties. ”
In 2015, George Osborne, then Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer, and Chinese officials called Britain-China relations a “golden age.”
That year, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the UK, and there was a new upsurge in Chinese investment in the UK.
At that time, British political circles generally believed that although China was a country under the one-party rule of the CCP, such worries should not affect the economic and trade development between the two countries.
Sunak himself said when he was chancellor of the exchequer last year that Britain needs to handle its relations with China in a meticulous manner, paying attention to China’s human rights issues on the one hand, and expanding economic and trade relations with China on the other.
But in the face of the hardline stance of many members of his Conservative Party on China, Sunak also sharpened his criticism of China when he ran for party leader in July, calling it the biggest threat to the security and prosperity of Britain and the world at large, and pledging to close all Confucius Institutes in Britain and lead the world in the fight against China’s cyber threats.
In his speech on Monday, Prime Minister Sunak said Britain would rise up to global competitors such as China with a strong pragmatic approach rather than rhetoric, and work with like-minded countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan to meet China’s challenge.
A day earlier, Canada unveiled its long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy, vowing to deal with a “disruptive” PRC while working with China to address climate change and trade issues.
Later, China warned, “If the Canadian side does not measure itself and acts recklessly, it will surely suffer a shameful defeat and will also be vigorously countered by China.” ”