A UK parliamentary committee on Friday urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative government to produce a "single, coherent China strategy" after voicing concern over a "distinct lack of any clear position" towards the Asian power
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th September, 2021) A UK parliamentary committee on Friday urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative government to produce a "single, coherent China strategy" after voicing concern over a "distinct lack of any clear position" towards the Asian power.
"There is no clear sense of what the current government's strategy towards China is, or what values and interests it is trying to uphold in the UK-China relationship," the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee said in a report.
According to the review, which gathers opinions from former ministers and defense chiefs, the British government must show how it intends to balance its ambition for increased economic trade relations with China and the need to protect wider interests such as security issues, human rights and labor protection.
"Although the Government maintains that it has made its approach to China clear in public statements and in the Integrated Review, we do not consider these vague statements, and those made to us during this inquiry, as constituting a strategy," committee chair Baroness Joyce Anelay was quoted as saying.
The parliamentary committee also claimed to have found "conclusive evidence" that China poses a significant threat to the UK's interests, and advised the government against seeking a post-Brexit free trade agreement with Beijing at this time.
It stressed, however, that the challenge of climate change cannot be addressed without the engagement of China, so the report urged Johnson to explain how climate cooperation will be included in the UK's China strategy.
