Tory pair vie to be toughest on China

Rishi Sunak has accused Liz Truss, his rival in the Conservative Party leadership contest, of enabling British universities to be infiltrated by China, a country he described as “our No. 1 threat”.

The former chancellor of the exchequer (pictured) tried to bolster his security credentials by calling for a ban on all of the 30 Confucius Institutes in the UK, which offer students opportunities to learn Mandarin and take part in cultural exchange programs with China.

The institutes have the stated aim of promoting Chinese culture but are accused of being Beijing’s propaganda arms that “rewrite the realities” of the regime’s human rights abuses.

Mr Sunak’s allies said nine of the institutes opened while Ms Truss was an education minister. They claimed that she had been an advocate of more trade with China, describing it as a “key global e c o n o m i c

partner”. Ms Truss’s allies said, however, she was one of the biggest China hawks in the government and had criticised the regime on repeated occasions.

They said Mr Sunak was “soft” on China, accusing the Treasury under his control of pushing for an economic deal between the two countries.

“Enough is enough,” a source said. “For too long, politicians in Britain and across the West have rolled out the red carpet and turned a blind eye to China’s nefarious activity and ambitions.”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a supporter of Ms Truss and cochairman of the inter-parliamentary alliance on China, said: “This ‘tough on China’ announcement is surprising. After all, over the past two years, the Treasury has pushed hard for an economic deal with China … despite China brutally cracking down on peaceful democracy campaigners in Hong Kong, threatening Taiwan, illegally occupying the South China Sea, committing genocide on the Uighurs and increasing its influence in our universities.”