China is number 1 threat to national security, says UK PM candidate Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak on Sunday said China is the "number one threat" to domestic and global security while promising to take a tougher stand against the country if he is elected as Britain's next prime minister.

Rishi Sunak on Sunday said he will get tough on China if he becomes Britain's next prime minister. He called China the "number one threat" to domestic and global security.

According to AFP, his promise came after his rival in the election, Liz Truss, accused him of being weak on China and Russia.

Sunak proposed to close all 30 Confucius Institutes in Britain in order to prevent the spread of Chinese influence through culture and language programmes. He also said he will “kick the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) out of our universities” by forcing higher education establishments to disclose foreign funding of more than £50,000 and reviewing research partnerships.

He said Britain's spy agency MI5 will be used to combat Chinese espionage, and would be considering building a "NATO-style" international co-operation to tackle Chinese threats in cyberspace. He added that he will look into banning Chinese acquisitions of key British assets, including strategically sensitive tech firms.

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Sunak listed several complaints against China and said the Asian superpower was stealing UK’s technology and infiltrating its universities, supporting Vladimir Putin by buying Russian oil, and attempting to bully its neighbours, including Taiwan.

He said, "They torture, detain and indoctrinate their own people, including in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, in contravention of their human rights. And they have continually rigged the global economy in their favour by suppressing their currency.”