Rishi Sunak warned against ‘appeasement’ after softening stance on China

Asian giant is ‘challenge’ not ‘threat’ to national security, says PM

Rishi Sunak has been warned against “appeasement” of China after he softened his stance on the threat posed by the Far Eastern giant to Britain’s national interests.

During the summer’s Conservative leadership contest, the prime minister declared that China was “the biggest long-term threat to Britain and the world’s economic and national security” and pledged a range of measures to counter its influence.

But at the G20 summit in Indonesia, he significantly dialed down his rhetoric, saying that China was “undoubtedly the biggest state-based threat to our economic security”, but that in national security terms it was a “systemic challenge” rather than a “threat”.