James Cleverly, UK foreign secretary, will face down China hawks in his governing Conservative party with a set-piece policy speech calling for a “robust and constructive” new bilateral relationship with Beijing.
In the address at the City of London’s Mansion House, Cleverly will say on Tuesday: “It would be clear and easy — perhaps even satisfying — for me to declare a new cold war and say that our goal is to isolate China.
“Clear, easy, satisfying and wrong. Because it would be a betrayal of our national interest and a wilful misunderstanding of the modern world.”
Allies of Cleverly say hardline Conservative critics of China, such as former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, are likely to be unhappy with the foreign secretary’s speech.
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s government has adopted a policy of seeking to neutralise security threats posed by China — notably by banning some Chinese technology — while engaging in areas such as trade, investment and climate change.
Sunak’s new integrated foreign and defence policy labels China an “epoch-defining challenge”, not a “threat”. Duncan Smith, a leading critic of Beijing, has called on Sunak to take a much tougher stance, saying the government is engaged in a “project kowtow”.
The address by Cleverly, who hopes to visit China this year, comes as western powers seek to balance concerns about Beijing’s rise with the need for international co-operation and to maintain economic ties.
During a state visit to China this month, French president Emmanuel Macron sparked an international backlash by suggesting the EU should distance itself from tensions between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan.
Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, said last week that national security measures targeted at Beijing were not designed to “stifle” the Chinese economy and any effort to decouple from China would be “disastrous”.
Cleverly, whose keynote speech will focus exclusively on China, will set out plans for engagements in the year ahead to improve relations with Beijing, while insisting that Britain will not drop its guard.
“No significant global problem — from climate change to pandemic protection, from economic stability to nuclear proliferation — can be solved without China,” Cleverly will say.
British officials say Beijing has signalled that Cleverly would be welcome to visit.
However, the foreign secretary’s speech will also set out areas where Britain remains at odds with China, including over Taiwan, civil rights in Hong Kong and “the creation of a 21st-century version of the gulag archipelago” to persecute the Uyghur people in China’s north-western Xinjiang region.
“Our revulsion is heartfelt and shared unanimously across our country and beyond,” he will say. “We are not going to let what is taking place in Xinjiang drop or be brushed aside.”