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British Prime Minister Sunak announces change of course in dealings with China

2022-11-29T15:45:46.818Z


Change through trade – in relation to Beijing, the West followed this maxim for a long time. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calls the approach naive. China is a challenge “to our values ​​and interests”.


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UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak: "We will never conform to EU law under my leadership"

Photo: Jacob King / dpa

Also under the impression of anti-government protests in China, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a change of course in relations with Beijing.

"The so-called golden era is over, along with the naïve notion that trade would automatically lead to social and political reforms," ​​Sunak said in his first foreign policy speech on Monday evening.

China poses a systemic challenge "to our values ​​and interests," Sunak said.

The head of government said that the more authoritarian China became, the greater the challenge.

At the same time, he warned against rhetoric like in the Cold War.

Relations with the EU are to be revived

"Of course, we cannot ignore China's importance on international issues, on global economic stability or on issues like climate change," Sunak said.

Together with allies such as the USA, Canada, Australia and Japan, Great Britain must accept "this intensifying competition".

"A lot of this revolves around dramatically improving our resilience, particularly our economic security," the premier said.

Sunak also pledged to reinvigorate relations with the EU to jointly address issues such as security and migration.

However, there is no way back after Brexit.

“We will never conform to EU law under my leadership,” said Sunak.

After the British newspaper "Sunday Times" reported last week that Britain was aiming for a similar relationship with the EU as Switzerland, the government had publicly rejected the idea.

A government spokesman called the report "clearly untrue."

Brexit means that the country will never have to return to the principle of freedom of movement or make “unnecessary payments to the EU”.

Despite the clear rejection of the Swiss model, the government under Prime Minister Sunak wants to significantly improve relations with the EU.

Because the country has its back against the wall economically – and the British central bank blames Brexit to a large extent.

muk/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-11-29

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