Britain's new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has now cleared his foreign policy on China to a great extent. He said on Monday (28 November) that China has presented a challenge to Britain's 'values and interests'. His statement came at a time when the BBC accused China Police of beating one of their journalists and the British government also condemned Beijing over the incident.
The British Prime Minister made this statement condemning the incident after the BBC journalist was accused of beating during the Shanghai Protests. In his first major foreign policy speech, Sunak said the so-called "golden age" of UK-China relations was over. Former British Prime Minister David Cameron was its big supporter. Rishi Sunak said, "The idea of a golden age of UK-China relations was founded on the naive idea that trade would bring about social and political change."
Rishi Sunak said, we cannot ignore China in global affairs...be it the matter of global economic stability or the issue of environmental change. America, Canada, Australia, Japan and many other countries also understand this. So together we will deal with this fierce competition which includes the path of diplomacy and dialogue."
This speech of Sunak on China is considered very important after the alleged beating of BBC journalist. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has also condemned it. He said that this is a very disturbing incident. Cleverly tweeted, "Freedom of the media and freedom to protest must be respected... No country is immune to this."