Relations with China are key issue in race for UK’s next Prime Minister

• Relations with China are a key issue in the race for UK’s next Prime Minister.
• Both candidates have talked tough about the Asian economic powerhouse.
• Beijing has warned British politicians not to hyping up the so-called ‘China threat,’ cannot solve one’s own problems’.

Beijing has asked those running to be Britain’s next Prime Minister not to “hyping up the so-called ‘China threat,'” as relations with the Asian economic powerhouse are becoming a key issue in the tight race for the leadership position.

As they compete for the top position, both former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss have talked tough, saying that the UK needs to defend its values against China’s influence. Beijing has taken notice.

“I want to make it clear to certain British politicians that making irresponsible remarks about China, including hyping up the so-called ‘China threat,’ cannot solve one’s own problems,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Monday at a regular news briefing when asked about Sunak’s comments.

Sunak said in a statement that day that China and its ruling Communist Party were the “largest threat to Britain and the world’s security and prosperity this century.”

He said that if he was elected, he would “face down China” by doing things like shutting down Confucius Institutes in the UK that were funded by Beijing. In 2020, the United States called the network a foreign mission, saying that it was a way for China to influence campuses. The people who run the institute denied those claims and said they focus on teaching Chinese language and culture.

Sunak also said he would make an alliance of “free nations” like NATO to deal with cyber-threats from China. Other countries may be wary of such a direct approach, so they would have to agree to join.

But the UK is becoming more like the US when it comes to China. Earlier this month, the heads of the UK’s MI5 security service and the FBI said in a joint address that the Chinese Communist Party is their “most game-changing challenge.”

Truss, who is known in the Conservative Party as a “China hawk,” has tried to show that Sunak’s position on China is a change by saying that the Treasury, when Sunak was in charge, “desire for closer economic relations with China.”  Last year, when Sunak was chancellor, he said that relations with Beijing should be “mature and balanced relationship”

On Monday, during their first face-to-face debate, Truss said that the UK should stop sending technology to “authoritarian regimes.” When asked if she would take action against the social media platform TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese media giant Bytedance, she said that it should be punished. Some members of Parliament have asked her to do this.

“I don’t think it’s inevitable that China will be the biggest economy in the world. In fact, we’ve been enabling that to happen,”  Truss said at the debate.

Both candidates are trying to convince Conservative Party members, who will choose between them in a vote from next month to early September, that they are the best choice.

After September 5, when a winner will be chosen, it is still not clear how the final winner would apply campaign rhetoric to China policy and trade relations.

The fact that Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao talked about the election on Monday wasn’t the only sign that Beijing is keeping an eye on it. The outcome of the election could make Britain’s stance on China even harder.

In recent years, this relationship has become strained because of British worries about Beijing’s crackdown on civil society in Hong Kong, alleged major human rights violations in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, and what the British see as a threat to national security from Chinese-funded domestic infrastructure. China and its companies have said that this kind of threat does not exist. They have also warned Western countries that criticising China’s human rights record is the same as meddling in China’s internal affairs.

This has made the Conservative Party more hard-line on China and put an end to what previous Conservative governments called a “golden” of relations between China and the UK, but Johnson still tried to keep economic ties open.

In a Tuesday article about the election in China’s state-run nationalist, Chinese analysts were quoted as saying that Britain would “definitely suffer more” if it “further worsens” its relations with China and “affects the bilateral trade relationship.”

The article said that during an election, politicians can say whatever they want to get votes, but they should also remember what their priorities are and what will happen if they keep their promises.

China was the UK’s largest importer and sixth largest export partner last year. When asked in Monday’s debate if they were willing to hurt these trade relations, both candidates gave vague answers based on their values.

Truss said that European countries needed to learn from the “mistakes” they made when they became too dependent on Russian oil and gas before Moscow invaded Ukraine.

“We cannot allow that to happen with China. Freedom is a price worth paying,” she said.

Sunak said that he had voted for a law that gave the government the power to stop investments from countries and companies that don’t share British values and interests or that are trying to “infiltrate” British organisations.

“As Prime Minister, I’ll take a very robust view on making sure that we do stand up for our values and we protect ourselves against those threats,” he said.

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