‘Weak leader’ fears as Rishi Sunak agrees to meet Chinese president in Bali
Rishi Sunak is accused of “appeasing” China as he becomes the first PM to meet Xi Jingping in almost five years.
Tory MPs warned the PM will be seen by Beijing as a “weak leader” by taking relations out of the deep freeze.
In the Conservative leadership contest this summer, Mr Sunak argued that “for too long politicians in Britain have rolled out the red carpet” to the Communist regime.
“I think I’ll face down China, it is our number one threat,” he declared.
But today he will meet the Chinese president one-on-one at the G20 summit in Indonesia.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, last night said: “I am worried that the present prime minister, when he meets Xi Jinping, will be perceived as weak because it now looks like we’re drifting into appeasement with China, which is a disaster as it was in the 1930s and so it will be now.”
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Downing Street)
Mr Duncan Smith, who is chairman of the inter-parliamentary alliance on China, added: “They’re a threat to our values, they’re a threat to economic stability, they’re a threat to us because of their failure to cooperate with the WHO (World Health Organization) early on that led to Covid spreading all over the world.
“They only understand strength and strength of purpose. Xi Jinping will see him as a weak leader and that’s how Xi Jinping behaves.”
Downing Street last night insisted Mr Sunak will raise China’s human rights record in the meeting.
The PM’s spokesman said: “He’s going to be clear on the need for China and the UK to establish a frank and constructive relationship.
“The challenges posed by China are systemic, they’re long term, and it’s a country fundamentally different with fundamentally different values to ours.
“But equally, none of the issues that we are discussing at the G20 – be it the global economy, Ukraine, climate change, global health – none of them can be addressed without coordinated action by the world’s major economies and of course that includes China.”
He added: “We are clear-eyed in how we approach our relationship with China.
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AFP via Getty Images)
“I think the British public understand that relationships with countries are complex and nuanced.”
Mr Sunak will also hold his first one-on-one meeting with Joe Biden today (WEDS). Last night he declared “there’s a huge degree of alignment” with the US on the “global challenges that we’re facing at the moment”.
“Between him and us there is terrific co-operation and there is terrific alignment on what we are both hoping to achieve,” he said. “Whether that’s in Russia and Ukraine, whether that’s in the Indo-Pacific, whether that’s on things for example on energy security. So I’m excited to get to work on all those things.”
In a diplomatic blitz, he will also meet Indian PM Narendra Modi, Australian PM Anthony Albanese, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
The G20 is made up of 19 nations and the EU. The member countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US.
David Cameron hailed a “golden era” of relations between Britain and China and gave President Xi a state visit, along with a trip to the pub for a pint of beer in 2015.
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EPA)
But relations have been in a deep freeze in recent years with Theresa May the last Prime Minister to meet the Chinese leader in February 2018.
China has been accused of “serious human rights violations” over its treatment of Uyghur muslims and MPs voted to agree the outrage is “genocide”.
More than a million people have been detained at camps in the Xinjiang region.
China has imposed draconian laws clamping down on free speech and dissent and was behind brutal clashes with firebombs, tear gas and water cannon against protesters.
Boris Johnson ordered Chinese company Huawei’s involvement to zero by 2023 after concerns by Tory MPs.
Critics claimed Beijing could force the firm to spy on people through so-called “back doors” in its telecoms equipment.
The outbreak of the covid pandemic in China lead to further fury about the response of the regime.