UK: Rishi Sunak, who is in the race to replace Boris Johnson as PM, promised on Sunday that he would deal sternly with China if elected. Sunak called the Asian superpower “the number one threat” to domestic and global security.
Sunak’s rival and former foreign minister Liz Truss accused Russia and China of being weak.
China’s official Global Times said Sunak was the only candidate in the contest with “a clear and pragmatic outlook on developing UK-China relations”. Sunak also said he would consider building NATO-style international cooperation to deal with Chinese threats. We will consider banning Chinese acquisitions of major British assets in cyberspace.
Sunak said that besides supporting Putin by buying Russian oil and threatening its neighbours, including Taiwan, China is stealing Britain’s technology and infiltrating its universities.
On China’s human rights violations, Sunak said, “They detain and motivate their people, including Xinjiang and Hong Kong.”
Sunak on Sunday focused on the sensitive issue of immigration by promising a “healthy dose of common sense” approach. Writing in ‘The Daily Telegraph’, he also pledged to curb the power of the European Court of Human Rights, withhold aid money if countries refuse to take back failed asylum seekers and criminals, and use cruise ships to house illegal migrants.
Reviving his Brexit credentials as someone who campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, Sunak pointed out that immigration and a desire to control Britain’s borders motivated him toward that decision. “As my own family experienced when they came to this country over 60 years ago, Britain is a generous, ambitious and compassionate country, and that is something to be proud of,” he wrote.
On the controversial policy of deporting some illegal migrants to Rwanda, he declared that the UK could not “waste large sums of taxpayers’ money” on the policy only to fall at the first legal hurdle. “I will make the policy work and do whatever it takes to implement it and pursue additional similar partnerships,” he declared. Truss also geared her campaign focus towards immigration on Sunday as she also pledged to ensure the scheme to deport some illegal migrants to Rwanda is fully implemented.