UK's Sunak: Golden Era with China Over

On Monday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the UK's “golden era” of ties with China was over in his first major speech on foreign policy.

He described China's growing authoritarianism as a “systemic challenge to our values and interests."

However, Sunak stopped short of calling China a threat, disappointing China hawks in his Conservative party who until recently expected him to label China a "threat" to UK security as part of an update to the government's foreign and defense policies.

In his speech at the annual Lord Mayor's Banquet in London, Sunak highlighted that the UK would stand up to global rivals such as China - "not with grand rhetoric but with robust pragmatism" and by strengthening its ties with like-minded global allies including the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan.

“We recognize China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests, a challenge that grows more acute as it moves towards even greater authoritarianism," he said.

Referring to Beijing's handling of the widespread protests across China against the country's aggressive "zero COVID" strategy, Sunak mentioned that "instead of listening to their people's protests, the Chinese government has chosen to take more drastic measures, including by assaulting a BBC journalist." 

In July, during the Conservative Party leadership race to choose a successor to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Sunak said China was the "greatest threat" to Britain and the security and prosperity of the world.

At the time, he pledged to close all Confucius Institutes, the organizations partially funded by the Chinese government that promote Chinese culture and language at UK universities. 

The British prime minister also explained that he would lead an international coalition against Chinese cyber threats, and help British companies and universities counter Chinese espionage.

Lawmaker Ian Duncan Smith, a former Conservative Party leader and a vocal China critic, stated that Sunak's "robust pragmatism" meant "anything you want it to mean" and amounted to "appeasement". 

David Lammy, the foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Labor Party, called Sunak's speech "as thin as gruel".

“All it shows is that once again the Conservative government is flip-flopping its rhetoric on China,” Lammy said.