India: Mr. Rishi Sunak has challenged the Chinese premier Mr. Li Qiang over Chinese interference in the UK parliament after two men were arrested amid allegations that a parliamentary researcher spied for Beijing.
The UK Prime Minister met Mr. Li on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Delhi in an unplanned meeting hours after reports revealed the researcher, who is understood to have had links to senior Conservative MPs, had been arrested along with another man.
Downing Street said after the meeting that b”the prime minister met Premier Mr. Li Qiang and conveyed his significant concerns about Chinese interference in the UK’s parliamentary democracy.”
Last month, Mr. James Cleverly became the first foreign secretary in five years to visit China and said during the visit that it would not be “credible” to disengage with Beijing.
Mr. Sunak, meanwhile, has angered China hawks in his own party by refusing to say the country is a threat to Britain. The UM PM commented earlier this year that “I don’t think it’s kind of smart or sophisticated foreign policy to reduce our relationship with China, which after all is a country with one and a half billion people, the second biggest economy, and a member of the UN Security Council.”
The Prime Minister has also refused to rule out inviting China to his summit on artificial intelligence later this year.
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