China is security ‘epoch-making challenge’: Rishi Sunak | World News

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said China posed an “epochal challenge” to the international order and launched a broad review of British policy, prompting some members of his party to criticize the failure to keep Beijing Disappointed by listing as a strategic security threat.

Sunak said the UK would continue to work with Beijing on issues such as climate change, but insisted his government would work with allies to “counter-attack” China if necessary.

The so-called comprehensive review said China’s policies “have implications for almost every area of ​​government policy and the daily lives of the British people”.

Britain is particularly concerned about what it says is China’s “disregard” for universal human rights from Tibet and Xinjiang to Hong Kong, as well as its “rapid and opaque” military modernization and refusal to renounce the use of force against Taiwan.

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Still, the review did not explicitly list China as a “threat.” The comment stated that the UK does not believe that its relationship with China is on an “established track” and that future cooperation will depend on whether China pursues greater authoritarianism and self-confidence overseas.

“Where the Chinese Communist Party seeks to coerce or create dependency, we will work closely with others to fight back,” Sunak said in opening remarks for his comments.

Sunak’s spokesman Jamie Davies later described China as “the greatest national threat to the UK’s economic security”.

By portraying China as a challenge rather than a threat beyond economic security, Sunak ignored the lobbying of some senior members of his ruling Conservative Party.