The UK should not pull the shutters down on China as it would be counterproductive to the national interest, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Tuesday.
There was not a binary choice to be made between treating China as either a threat or an opportunity, Cleverly told The Guardian, adding that the UK’s approach should be more nuanced.
Cleverly’s comments come amid the UK government’s attempts to navigate Beijing’s growing economic and political reach, and Conservative Party MPs are pressing the prime minister and his cabinet to take a harder stance.
Cleverly will announce the UK’s approach towards China in a major speech next week following the government’s reviewed defence and foreign policy.
In March, the UK published its Integrated Review, which – among other things – toughened its language on China, describing the country as posing an “epoch-defining challenge,” according to a press release by the Foreign Ministry.
“I get why a number of my colleagues are hawkish. But it’s not in their interest or my interest or anyone else’s interest to just pull the shutters down on this relationship, because China will carry on carrying on whether we engage with them or not,” Cleverly told The Guardian.
“If we don’t engage, we lose that influence. I have no intention of throwing away what influence I do have, even with China,” he added.
China has also been a hot topic in the EU, mainly with Macron triggering a firestorm following a trip to China by asserting that Europe should not automatically follow US policy on Taiwan and should avoid “crises that aren’t ours”.
On Tuesday, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen urged the bloc’s leaders to show unity in the face of China, one week after French President Emmanuel Macron stirred a fierce debate over ties with Beijing.
(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
