China's 'unusual' threat to the UK indicates big dilemma facing Beijing, says experts

China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, gave an hour-long address via Twitter to dismiss accusations of persecution and abuse of Uighur Muslims, condemn the Government’s decision to block the involvement of tech giant Huawei in Britain’s 5G network and warn the UK to not intefere in Chinese affairs over the continuing crisis in Hong Kong. Rana Mitter, director of Oxford University’s China Centre, spoke to Times Radio about a recently released report he had co-authored on the future of UK-China relations from the British Foreign Policy Group. The expert claimed since Mr Liu did not direct his verbal fire directly at Boris Johnson and the British Government was actually a deliberate act and showed Beijing’s mindset.

He said: “In a strange way, if you listen to the speech, of course it has very fiery rhetoric, but the specifics are very very vague.

“It’s really just pointing out there will be consequences, the precise nature of which has yet to be defined.

“I think this is actually an attempt by the Chinese to make some crucial distinctions between the Government and the Conservative backbench group which is very fierce against China.

“The speech also reflects a dilemma in the mind of Beijing since their natural style is to get tough.”

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Mr Mitter continued: “They don’t want this to get worse, and one of the reasons if that China has done something quite unusual.

“Usually when they want to put pressure on a trade partner or rival, they tend to put in actions that affect just that one country.

“But this time, there’s been a much more problematic reaction for China in that its managed to alienate Australia, Canada, the UK and Germany to name a few.

“I think the diplomatic front there is becoming a bit difficult to maintain.”

Most recently, tensions between Britain and China rocketed following the reversal of the decision to grant access to Huawei.

Downing Street are now banning UK mobile providers from buying the equipment after December 31.

Huawei 5G kits will be required to be removed from the UK by 2027.

The decision was prompted by the US Government imposing new restrictions on the tech giant, severely limiting its ability to use American technology to design and manufacture semiconductors produced for it abroad.

Donald Trump’s administration had heavily criticised Number 10 for concluding it was safe to deploy Huawei in future 5G networks back in January.

source: express.co.uk