While European China policy is arguing about the importance of the triad "partnership, competition, rivalry", the British are working on the dualism of "challenge" and "threat".

In the months before he took over as prime minister, Rishi Sunak was known as a "China hawk" for repeatedly calling the People's Republic a "threat" to the kingdom.

Now, in his first foreign policy speech (at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in London) and after attending the G-20 summit in Bali, he returned to the notion of "systemic challenge," prompting accusations of "appeasement." brought in.

Jochen Buchsteiner

Political correspondent in London.

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In doing so, Sunak's passage through China began with a clear departure from the friendly policies adopted by the conservative government in its early days.

"The so-called 'golden era' is over," Sunak said.

The formula was coined during the magnificent state visit of 2015, when President Xi Jinping was even invited to a pub by David Cameron.

The story also got over "the naïve idea that trade will lead to social and political reform," Sunak said.

But one caveat immediately followed: one should not immediately switch to “simplistic Cold War rhetoric”.

After all, "China's importance in world politics" cannot be ignored, both for the global economy and when it comes to climate change.

The United States, Australia, Japan and other allies see it the same way, Sunak said, which is why "we will tackle this intensifying competition together" -- including with diplomacy and talks.

"Tautological Nonsense"

After all, Sunak criticized the Chinese leadership for its actions against anti-government demonstrators and also against a BBC journalist.

Beijing is "moving more and more toward authoritarianism," he said.

At the same time, he assured that Great Britain would end its "global dependencies on authoritarian regimes" - and named Russian gas, but also the suppression of Chinese influence on the British chip manufacturer Newport Wafer Fab.

As a further response to a "robust pragmatism", Sunak propagated an intensified engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, where deep and long-term partnerships are sought with countries like Indonesia.

This will help "protect the arteries and heart chambers of the global economy and promote security and prosperity - both at home, in our European neighborhood and in the Indo-Pacific".

Sunak announced a "mature cooperation" with the states of the European Union and reduced it to the issues of "illegal migration" and "strategic vulnerabilities" (mainly through Russia).

Once again he countered speculation that London was looking for a rapprochement with the EU after Brexit.

"Under my leadership, we will never conform to EU law," he said.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith scoffed at Sunak's notion of robust pragmatism, which he described as "tautological nonsense".

Drawing parallels in Europe in the late 1930s, he said the more dictatorships are met with appeasement, the more dangerous waters you slide into.

"China understands strength, it also sees weakness - and it sees that as weakness." Duncan Smith has been sanctioned by Beijing for his criticism of the country.

The Labor Party on Tuesday criticized a "back and forth" and called Sunak's China rhetoric a "thin soup".