By Stefan Boscia
Liz Truss is set to label China as a threat to the UK for the first time in a major shift in the government’s diplomatic position.
Last year’s Integrated Review of foreign and defence policy under Boris Johnson said Russia was an “acute and direct threat”, but that China was only a “systemic competitor”.
The Guardian reports that the Prime Minister is set to update the Integrated Review within the next week to also label China as a threat to the UK.
Truss held hawkish positions on China while she was trade secretary and then foreign secretary, and her Number 10 spokesperson yesterday labelled Beijing as “the most serious long-term threat to our values and way of life”.
The move will be greeted warmly by many Tory MPs, particularly those who were sanctioned by the Chinese government last year.
This includes former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, new business minister Nus Ghani and new security minister Tom Tugendhat.
“It is time we stopped messing around and recognised that China poses a threat to the way we live our lives, and it is time now to treat them in the same way we treat Russia,” Duncan Smith told The Guardian.
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