British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet at The Guildhall in London.Credit:Getty
“It means standing up to our competitors,not with grand rhetoric but with robust pragmatism,” he said.
“We will do all this not only through our diplomatic expertise,science and tech leadership,and investment in defence and security,but by dramatically increasing the quality and depth of our partnerships with like-minded countries around the world,” he said.
But he said Britain’s leap had already begun,in Ukraine. Britain was also repositioning on China and deepening its partnerships in the Indo-Pacific.
“Let’s be clear,the so-called ‘golden era’ is over,along with the naive idea that trade would lead to social and political reform,” he said.
“We recognise China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests,a challenge that grows more acute as it moves towards even greater authoritarianism.”
He said this was most recently shown by China’s crackdown on protesters and theweekend assault of BBC journalist Ed Lawrence,who was detained and beaten while reporting on the anti-COVID zero and anti-Xi protests in Shanghai,China.
“Instead of listening to their people’s protests,the Chinese government has chosen to crack down further,including by assaulting a BBC journalist,” Sunak said.