UK’s Prime Ministerial Candidates Pledged Tougher Stance on Communist China

The UK’s two Prime ministerial candidates, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, running to succeed Boris Johnson, have pledged a tough stance on Communist China if elected.

During a recent televised debate, Liz Truss said she would crack down on Chinese companies like TikTok due to security concerns and limit technology exports. Earlier, Rishi Sunak announced Communist China is the ‘number-one threat’ to domestic and global security. He also vowed to prevent Chinese soft-power influence over the UK. Even though both contestants clash on various issues, they have a similar viewpoint on foreign policy toward Beijing.

Both contestants promised to take decisive action against Communist China if they succeeded Boris Johnson. Not long ago, the UK government had clashed with CCP over Beijing’s stand on Hong Kong, worldwide cyber-attacks, and human rights abuse against minority groups.

Additionally, in recent months, the UK government urged Beijing not to support Russia and had a split due to Beijing’s stance in the United Nations on Russia and military posturing around Taiwan. For these reasons, Sunak and Truss adopted a tougher approach to Communist China. They elevated Beijing to a similar status to Russia.

In response, Zhao Lijian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, criticized the language used in the televised debates by the candidates. “I would like to urge certain British politicians not to make an issue out of China or hype the so-called China threat,” Zhao said on Tuesday.

Furthermore, On July 6, Britain’s MI5 intelligence and FBI made a joint address to warn that Communist China poses ‘a massive shared challenge.’ “The most game-changing challenge we face comes from the Chinese Communist Party. It’s covertly applying pressure across the globe. This might feel abstract, but it’s real and pressing. We need to talk about it. We need to act,” MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said in a speech with his FBI counterpart Christopher Wray.