Rishi Sunak accused of ‘kowtowing’ to China by Tory hawks

PM sparks backlash as foreign policy review stops short of classifying Beijing as a ‘threat’

Rishi Sunak has been accused by senior Tories of “kowtowing” to China as he defied calls to reclassify Beijing as a systemic threat to Britain.

The PM defended his policy of continuing to engage with China, despite believing that Xi Jinping’s “increasingly authoritarian” regime poses an “epoch-defining challenge” to the global order.

But Mr Sunak sparked a row with China hawks in his party, who agree with his predecessor Liz Truss that the country should have been redesignated a threat.