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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has claimed that China poses “the single biggest state threat” to his country’s “economic security”, but insisted on engaging with Beijing on global issues.
“I’m very clear that China poses a systemic challenge to both our values and our interests and it represents the single biggest state threat to our economic security and that’s why it’s right that we take the steps that are necessary to protect ourselves,” Sunak claimed on Tuesday during an interview with Sky News on the sidelines of the G20 summit underway in Indonesia without elaborating on details.
The British premier, however, added that he was still hopeful that he could meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping while at the summit’s venue in Bali.
“If we want to solve big global challenges like public health, Russia and Ukraine, fixing the global economy, or indeed climate change, it’s important to have a dialogue and to engage with China as part of solving those challenges,” Sunak then asserted.
Sunak’s meeting with China’s Xi cancelled
This is while a bilateral meeting between the conservative British Prime Minister and Chinese President Xi Jingping – the first such talks between the countries in five years – was cancelled reportedly due to emergency meetings held in the aftermath of a missile strike in Poland that was initially blamed on Russia. It was later reported that the missile that killed two people was fired by Ukrainian forces.
Downing Street stated that there were “movements with timings on both sides” that led to the cancellation of the meeting, but added that Sunak had wanted it to go ahead.
“The prime minister obviously thinks it is still important to have that conversation with President Xi,” his spokesperson said.
According to UK-based media reports, a British prime minister has not spoken to the Chinese president by phone for more than 18 months and has not had a face to face meeting since early 2018. Theresa May visited China for a three-day trade visit in January 2018 and Boris Johnson spoke to Xi during the COVID pandemic in March 2021.
