New Foreign Secretary David Cameron defends his pro-China policy as Prime Minister and urges Britain to ‘engage’ with Beijing
- David Cameron, now Foreign Secretary, said UK should ‘engage’ with Beijing
- Cameron heralded a ‘golden era’ in UK-China relations when PM in 2015
- Remarks risk angering hawkish Tory backbenchers
David Cameron has defended his pro-China policy as prime minister and said Britain should ‘engage’ with Beijing.
In his first full interview since becoming Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron said he had been right to try to pursue a new ‘golden era’ in relations with the superpower.
His comments are likely to enrage many Tory MPs, some of them sanctioned by China and who fear he could seek to soften the Government’s stance toward the communist regime.
Chinese President Xi Jinping made a state visit to Britain in 2015. The visit was widely seen as the high-point of David Cameron’s ‘golden era’ of ties with Beijing
David Cameron visited Beijing in 2018, while he was out-of-office. While there he congratulated the Chinese Communist Party for the ‘success’ of its National Congress and President Xi’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative
Read More: Cameron’s Return Welcomed by Chinese State Media
Elsewhere in his BBC interview, he risked angering pro-Brexit Tory MPs by saying Britain should engage more closely with the EU on foreign, defence and security policies.
Lord Cameron, who is in the Middle East, said: ‘When I became prime minister, the greatest need was for Britain to grow again, trade again, with exports to help our businesses around the world. I loaded up planes, I took them to India, I took them to China, I took them to Africa to get the economy moving again.’
He said that China had become ‘much more aggressive, much more assertive’ since he left office and ‘security and protection’ were now much more important.
But he added: ‘Engaging China is one part of the approach we need to take. Not least, because China is a fifth of humanity.
‘We’re not going to solve challenges like climate change, unless we engage. And hopefully I can be a part of that.’
He has met both Israeli and Palestinian leaders on his tour.
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