For Rishi Sunak, the “golden era” with China is over
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak believes that China now represents “a legitimate challenge to our values and interests”.
Rishi Sunak during his speech in London on November 28, 2022.
AFP
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday evening that the “golden era” between the UK and China was over, suggesting a more pragmatic approach to the “formal challenge” posed by Beijing after a BBC reporter was arrested in Shanghai.
Commenting on the warming of Sino-British relations since 2015 under David Cameron, Rishi Sunak said, “The glorious ‘golden age’ is over, as is the naïve notion that trade would automatically lead to political and social reform. .
In his first major foreign policy speech at Guildhall, a palace in the City of London, the prime minister opined that China now “represents a legitimate challenge to our values and our interests”. Moving towards an even greater totalitarianism.
“Beat and Hit”
His comments come after the arrest and police violence against a BBC journalist covering the protests in Shanghai. The BBC said on Sunday evening that its journalist Ed Lawrence had been “arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai”. According to the British Audiovisual Company, he was “assaulted and beaten by police” before being released.
Unprecedented anger since the bloody 1989 pro-democracy protests in China, fueled by mobilizing against restrictions and restrictions imposed by authorities to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
“Instead of listening to its people’s protest, the Chinese government has chosen to crack down further, particularly by attacking a journalist from the BBC,” the prime minister condemned. “The media – and our parliamentarians – can highlight these issues without letting them go,” he asserted.
Practical approach
The BBC reported, “There has been no official explanation or apology from the Chinese authorities, beyond the authorities’ claim, which later released him, that they arrested him for his own benefit in the case he caught Covid (in the middle of the crowd). “We don’t see that as a credible explanation.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in Beijing on Monday that Ed Lawrence did not identify himself as a journalist and did not voluntarily provide his press credentials. The incident worsens relations between Beijing and London, against a backdrop of fierce criticism of the United Kingdom, particularly over China’s recapture of Hong Kong and recent incidents on British soil.
But if the Prime Minister says he wants to “evolve” the UK’s approach to the Asian country, we should not ignore “China’s place in world affairs”. Earlier on Monday, a spokesman for the head of government described the journalist’s arrest as “shocking and unacceptable”. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t have constructive relations with China on other issues, such as the fight against global warming or the economy”.
“Threat Number 1”
During the campaign that took him to Downing Street, it was a speech that faded as Rishi Sunak called China the “number one threat” to the UK. The United Kingdom has recently been marked by violence against a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist at the Chinese embassy in Manchester (North) and reports by a Spanish NGO that Beijing has opened secret police stations in several Western countries, particularly on British soil. .
Reacting to Ed Lawrence’s arrest, British Defense Secretary Tom Tugenhardt said the case echoed the “repression” the Chinese Communist Party was trying to implement “elsewhere”. “Attempts of state repression in the UK remind us of the urgent need to protect our own liberties,” he tweeted.
AFP
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