Bloomberg reported that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is “secretly trying to repair his country’s relations with China through covert methods.”
“Some time ago, Sunak sent his country’s commerce minister to Hong Kong and urged his envoy to settle as many differences with Beijing behind closed doors as possible,” the agency said in a statement.
In the same context, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley is expected to visit China in the coming months, according to Bloomberg, which reported that Sunak himself has so far refrained from visiting China to meet with President Xi Jinping, unlike French leaders. This was done by Germany and Spain.
It is also unlikely that Prime Minister Sunak will visit the capital Beijing before the next UK general election in 2025, according to what people familiar with the matter have confirmed.
And Bloomberg, citing its sources, also noted that Beijing “prefers to send a high-ranking representative of the economy or trade to the UK at the head of a trade delegation instead of the foreign secretary.”
It should be noted that the Financial Times previously reported, citing excerpts from Secretary of State Cleverly’s upcoming speech, that he considered declaring a “cold war” on China as a “mistake”, emphasizing that “one global problem cannot be solved” without China.
However, according to the journalist, the minister will also touch on areas where the UK is still at odds with China, including Taiwan, civil rights in Hong Kong and the Uyghur issue.
Source: News
