Kemi Badenoch said the UK should not describe China as an “enemy” despite the arrest of a parliamentary investigator on suspicion of spying for Beijing.
The Business and Trade Secretary was asked during an interview on Sky News this morning whether China should be considered Britain’s friend or foe.
She responded: “China is a country we do a lot of business with. China is an important country in terms of the world economy, it is part of the UN Security Council.
“We certainly shouldn’t describe China as an enemy, but we can describe it as a challenge, which is what the Attorney General said yesterday and what I say today.
“I don’t think we should be careless in terms of how we talk about other countries when these kinds of things happen and the important thing is that the Prime Minister told the Chinese Prime Minister this weekend that he spoke to him about his very serious concerns. and so “That’s important to be able to have the commitment to be able to talk face to face and say exactly what we think in a way that will have an impact.”
Sunak clashed with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang at the G20 summit in India on Sunday over what he described as “unacceptable” interference in UK democracy.
The investigator was arrested in March but was not revealed until Saturday. Sunak is now under increasing pressure from Conservative MPs to designate China as a “threat” rather than a “challenge”.
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