London [UK], April 25 : UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will set out UK's multifaceted approach to China in his Mansion House speech on Tuesday.
In the evening speech in London, the UK Foreign Secretary will say that the UK should continue to engage robustly and constructively with China on issues ranging from climate change to trade and investment.
The country will be realistic about China's authoritarism, standing up for UK's values and being clear about its right to act when Beijing breaks its international obligations or abuses human rights.
The UK Foreign Secretary in his speech will reject any attempts to describe a country of China's scale and complexity in one word or phrase, whether 'threat', 'partner' or 'adversary'. He will challenge the 'clear, easy, satisfying, but wrong' assertion that isolating China is in the UK's interests.
Cleverly will in his speech set out the UK's multifaceted approach to China over three pillars.
First, to strengthen national security protections whenever Beijing poses a threat to UK people or prosperity; second to deepen cooperation with friends and allies in the Indo-Pacific and across the world to uphold international law and; third to engage directly with China to promote stable relations.
The Foreign Secretary on the issue of national security and upholding UK values, will say: "We do not expect our disagreements with China to be swiftly overcome, but we do expect China to observe the laws and obligations that it has freely accepted."
"If China breaks them, we are entitled to say so and to act, as we did when China dismantled the freedoms of Hong Kong, violating its own pledge, and we gave nearly 3 million of Hong Kong's people a path to British citizenship. Peaceful co-existence has to begin with respecting fundamental laws and institutions, including the UN Charter, which protects every country against invasion," he will say.
He will call on China to be open about the purposes of its vast military expansion.
"At this moment, China is carrying out the biggest military build-up in peacetime history."
"The UK and our allies are prepared to be open about our presence in the Indo-Pacific. I urge China to be equally open about the doctrine and intent behind its military expansion, because transparency is surely in everyone's interests and secrecy can only increase the risk of tragic miscalculation," Cleverly will say during his speech.
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