Sunak Takes Nuanced Approach to China Threat in U.K. Defense Plan

(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will face down critics in his ruling Conservative Party who have called on him to denounce China as a strategic threat to the U.K.’s security, instead offering a more nuanced approach to relations with Beijing as he sets out the nation’s foreign policy priorities.

Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss had intended to designate China a strategic threat in an update to the U.K.’s so-called Integrated Review, or IR, of defense and security. After economic turmoil led to an abrupt end to her tenure, Sunak — more emollient in approach — took a fresh look at the strategy and came to a different conclusion about the threat.