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The Senior Conservatives have criticized Rishi Sunak’s “confusing” approach to China after the latest review of Britain’s foreign policy described Beijing as a “groundbreaking challenge” rather than a “threat”.
Former Conservative Party leader Sir Ian Duncan-Smith has questioned the prime minister’s apparent downgrade from last summer that Britain’s ‘greatest threat’ comes from the Chinese government, skeptical of China was one of the leading members of parliament.
Meanwhile, Commons Foreign Relations Commission chairman Alicia Kearns said the latest consolidated review released Monday mistakenly viewed China’s threat as primarily economic rather than security-based. He said it seemed to be
Meanwhile, Conservative Party officials question whether the government’s announced £5bn increase in defense spending over two years will be enough, and Sir Bernard Jenkin believes it will be enough to deter Russian and Chinese aggression. He warned that cash would not be enough to rebuild the army.
Labor Party’s Stephen Kinnock, meanwhile, called for a “meticulous strategic review of all aspects” of UK-China relations.
It came after an ‘updated’ Consolidated Review (IR23) said the UK had pledged to take ‘quick and strong action’ to counter threats to its interests from China. .
The East Asian country under communist rule represents a ‘revolutionary and systemic challenge’ to nearly every aspect of government policy and the daily lives of the British people.
The UK will aim to remain “constructively” engaged with the administration to address shared priorities, but the review says this could be done if Beijing continues its trend towards greater “authoritarianism and assertiveness”. warns that it will become increasingly difficult.
The document describes the approach as a “mature diplomatic template” between the two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and has been adopted by key allies including Europe, the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan. It reflects what
Sunak, who was in San Diego for a summit meeting between US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the Aux Defense Pact aimed at deterring Chinese aggression, said the review said Britain said it had become “very clear” that they were “alarmed”. to the fact that Beijing “represents a challenge to the world order.”
The prime minister also hinted that the UK could follow in the footsteps of the US and EU, suggesting a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok on government phones and devices.
“We take device security seriously,” he told the BBC.
“And we’re also looking at what our allies are doing, and we’re doing all of that.”
However, some Tory MPs expressed concerns about IR23 and the accompanying defense spending announcement.
In a Commons statement on the review, Sir Ian said:
“It was the prime minister who said China poses a systemic threat when he ran for election, but that has since been downgraded to a systemic challenge.
“But now we understand that it has turned into a breakthrough challenge.
“I just want to ask, in the same paragraph of the document that the Prime Minister prepared today, he mentions that epoch-making challenge, but then he says that this is facing that threat.
“So does this mean that China is no longer a threat, a breakthrough challenge, an era of challenging governments, or neither?”
Mr Kearns, meanwhile, criticized his failure to address claims of a secret Chinese “police station” within Britain used to intimidate opponents in Beijing. To see China as a serious threat is to fail to recognize that China seeks to undermine our security and sovereignty,” she said.
Lord Bernard is one of many Conservative MPs who have expressed concern about defense spending, with an ambition of spending £5 billion over two years to raise it to 2.5% of GDP, making the military a ‘maintainable force’. warned that it would not be enough to bring it back to “critical mass.” We will deter aggression like the one we see in Ukraine, aggressive policies like the one we see in China.”