- Tuesday, March 11, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
It was only a matter of time before China reacted to a reported campaign pledge made by British prime ministerial candidate Liz Truss classifying Beijing as a “threat” to national security.
On Tuesday (30), China’s belligerent state-run tabloid Global Times came up with a piece slamming Truss’s plan. It cited observers in China saying that the plan was an irresponsible vote-puller and warned that it would not help in solving Britain’s own problems and hurt prospects of improving the two nations’ relations.
It had reacted in a similar way after Truss’s opponent Rishi Sunak had called China the “largest threat to the UK” in July.
The Global Times article said that the reported labelling of China by the British prime ministerial hopeful was meant for canvassing for votes and reflecting the trend of British officials’ increasingly hardened attitude toward China by riding on the United States’ anti-China stance. It cited observers as saying that “such an irresponsible move” could affect economic and trade ties and people-to-people exchange between China and the UK.
The Times UK recently reported citing Truss’s allies that China will be declared as a threat to Britain’s national security as part of her campaign pledge. If this happened, it would be a first ever for the government of the UK.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a press conference on Monday that “we do not comment on and have no interest in the UK’s internal affairs, including the Conservative Party leadership election.”
“Some UK politicians are finding fault with China or hyping the ‘China threat’, which is irresponsible and will not solve the UK’s own problems,” the diplomat said.
If major British politicians continue to make irresponsible statements about China, the relations between the two nations will face great difficulties and challenges, Feng Zhongping, director of the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
“Before Brexit, UK’s policy toward China was somewhat restricted, because EU countries had to coordinate with each other and many of them are more friendly to China,” Feng said.
“However, after Brexit, the UK has moved closer to the US and has come to see China more as a major competitor. If the UK continues to follow this path, then bilateral relations will face even greater difficulties,” he added.
