How should Britain handle its relationship with China? That’s an increasingly fraught question inside the Tory party lately, with several China hawks in government and on the backbenches keen to limit engagement while classifying the country as a security threat.
Earlier this year, James Cleverly faced criticism after becoming the first UK Foreign Secretary to visit Beijing in five years – a trip he defended at the time as necessary for diplomacy, arguing that disengaging from the country was not ‘credible’.
Speaking to Cindy Yu at conference today, for a special edition of the Chinese Whispers podcast, Cleverly defended his position again, saying:
‘Foreign secretary flies to foreign country to have meetings should not be controversial.’
In a rebuke to those who may want to limit engagement with China, he also encouraged other ministers to meet their Chinese counterparts and officials and argued:
‘Pretending that China is not a significant player on the world stage is not a winning strategy.
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