The Chinese Government has reacted to comments credited to the former Chief Finance Minister of the United Kingdom and frontline contender for the position of Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, about how he would reshape UK-China relations.
On Monday, Sunak alleged that China and the Chinese Communist Party remains the largest threat to Britain and the world’s security and prosperity this century.
He said if elected as PM on September 5, he would build a new international alliance of free nations to tackle Chinese cyber-threats and share best practices in technology security.
Advertisement
He added, “I would close all 30 of China’s Confucius Institutes in the UK – the highest number in the world. Almost all UK government spending on Mandarin language teaching at school is channelled through university-based Confucius Institutes, thereby promoting Chinese soft power.
“I will expand MI5’s reach to provide greater support to British businesses and universities to counter Chinese industrial espionage. We’ll work across government and with security services to build a toolkit to help companies protect their intellectual property.
“I will protect key British assets. That means examining the need to prevent Chinese acquisitions of key British assets including strategically sensitive tech firms.”
Reacting to the development in a press briefing hours later, Zhao Lijian, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson said while he would refrain from talking about the UK elections, any of the politicians attacking Beijing government is just being irresponsible.
“The election at the heart of the Conservative party in the UK is the internal affairs of the country. I would not make a comment on that.
“I will like to urge certain UK politicians not to make an issue out of China and China threat because such irresponsible words will not help them to solve their own problems,” Lijian said.