Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak’s campaigns are now getting into more of the nitty gritty of policy pledges as they try to sway Conservative Party members in the race to become Tory leader and prime minister.
London (UK)- Liz Truss’ team has accused Rishi Sunak of cosying up to China while he was chancellor after he pledged to impose curbs on Beijing and called it the “biggest long-term threat to Britain”.
Mr Sunak has promised to close all 30 of China’s Confucius Institutes in the UK in a major hardening of government policy on China if he became PM.
The institutes are funded by the Chinese government and are meant to be culture and language centres, but critics claim they are propaganda tools as relations between the West and China worsen.
Mr Sunak accused China of “stealing our technology and infiltrating our universities”, while “propping up Putin’s fascist invasion of Ukraine”, bullying Taiwan and contravening human rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, as well as suppressing their currency to “continually rig the global economy in their favour.
He also pledged to lead the world in standing up to China’s “technological aggression” by amending the Higher Education Bill to force British universities to disclose any foreign funding partnerships of more than £50,000.
Mr Sunak has also committed to reviewing all UK-Chinese research partnerships that could assist China technologically or have military applications, as well as expanding MI5’s reach to provide greater support to British businesses and universities to counter alleged Chinese industrial espionage.
He said he would look at whether there is a need to prevent Chinese acquisitions of key British assets to address concerns about the scale of Chinese investment in key industries.
“I will stop China taking over our universities, and get British companies and public institutions the cyber-security they need,” he said.
“And I will work with President Biden and other world leaders to transform the West’s resilience to the threat China poses.”
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who backs Ms Truss and has been sanctioned by Beijing, said the “‘tough on China’ announcement is surprising” as he accused the Treasury, led by Mr Sunak, of pushing hard for an economic deal with China over the past two years despite major human rights’ violations and increasing influence in UK universities.
He added: “After such a litany, I have one simple question, where have you been over the last two years?”
A spokesman for Ms Truss said she had “strengthened Britain’s position on China” since becoming foreign secretary and “helped lead the international response to increased Chinese aggression”, which would continue if she was PM.
Her team accused Mr Sunak of consistently being “soft” on China and of being backed by Beijing state media as they said The Global Times has “effectively endorsed” Mr Sunak as PM.
They added that Ms Truss pushed for projects such as the Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk to not be dependent on Chinese companies and funding, and said if she was PM she would focus on tackling aggression seen by China and Russia.
The team provided a list of times she has spoken out about China’s attempts to influence other countries and its “economic coercion”.
Education Secretary James Cleverly told Times Radio Ms Truss, who he is supporting, has “been talking about this for a long time”.
Sunak supporter and former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt told Sky News he thought Mr Sunak was “right to call that out” in terms of his plan to ban Confucius Institutes and added that universities need to have “full freedom of speech”.