Sunak’s comments come shortly after groups of individuals across China held public demonstrations to protest the country’s stringent zero-Covid policy.
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U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the so-called golden era of relations with China was over, warning that Beijing’s move toward even greater authoritarianism posed a systemic challenge to Britain’s values and interests.
“Let’s be clear, the so-called golden era is over,” Sunak said Monday in his first major foreign policy speech.
His reference to the “golden era” for the U.K.-China relationship echoed comments made by former U.K. Finance Minister George Osborne in 2015, who had claimed Britain could possibly be China’s “best partner within the West.”
Sunak said it had been “naïve” to imagine that closer economic ties over the previous decade could lead on to social and political reform and accused Beijing of “conspicuously competing for global influence using all the levers of state power.”
He warned, nevertheless, that Britain couldn’t depend on “simplistic Cold War rhetoric.”
China’s Embassy in London was not immediately available to answer a request for comment.
Sunak has faced pressure from Conservative backbenchers to toughen his stance on China since he took over as party leader and prime minister last month.
“We recognize China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests — a challenge that grows more acute because it moves towards even greater authoritarianism,” Sunak said in his speech on the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London.
His comments come shortly after public demonstrations were held across China to protest the country’s stringent zero-Covid policy. A BBC journalist on Sunday was beaten and briefly detained by police while covering an anti-government protest in Shanghai.
“As an alternative of listening to their people’s protests, the Chinese government has chosen to crack down further, including by assaulting a BBC journalist,” Sunak said.
“The media and our parliamentarians must have the opportunity to spotlight these issues without sanction, including calling out abuses in Xinjiang and the curtailment of freedom in Hong Kong.”
Sunak said the pace of geopolitical change was intensifying and “short-termism or wishful considering won’t suffice” within the face of challenges posed by Russia and China.
