UK’s Rishi Sunak says ‘golden era’ with China over

By SYLVIA HUI
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has declared that the U.K.’s “golden era” of ties with China was over in his first major speech on foreign policy, and described China’s growing authoritarianism as a “systemic challenge to our values and interests.” But Sunak stopped short of calling China a threat. Some members in his Conservative Party had until recently expected Sunak to class China as a “threat” to U.K. security as part of an update of the government’s foreign and defense policies. In his speech Monday, Sunak said the U.K. would stand up to global competitors like China “not with grand rhetoric but with robust pragmatism.”