Sunak suffered a crushing defeat, and the new British government has made its attitude towards China clear and will send senior officials to visit China. After Sunak announced his resignation, what kind of attitude did the new British government make clear towards China? How will the relationship between China and the UK change?
On July 5, local time in the United Kingdom, the results of the British general election were released, and the Labor Party won 326 of the 467 seats in the lower house of parliament that had completed the counting, more than half of the seats needed to become the ruling party, and successfully won the election. This is also the first time in 14 years that the Labour Party has become the ruling party in the United Kingdom.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak accepted the result of the fiasco, announced his resignation in a speech at 10 Downing Street on the same day, and apologized to the nation for the defeat.
Mr Sunak said he had heard the anger and disappointment, that he was responsible for the defeat, and that the British people had sent a clear signal through the election that the British government must change, and that he would soon be meeting King Charles to submit his resignation.
But in fact, in the two and a half years since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Britain has elected 4 prime ministers, among which Sunak's predecessors Johnson and Truss all resigned gloomily.
According to the research report released by the British think tank "Resolution Foundation", the British economy has been in a state of stagnation for 15 years, and the year-on-year GDP growth rate in most years is around 3% or less than 3%, while at the same time, the average real wage of the British people has increased by only 33% every 10 years, so it is completely predictable that the British people will complain about this, coupled with the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the European economy and energy, the British economic situation has fallen into a more serious disaster, Especially since the UK was once the financial center of Europe, such a gap will only make it more difficult for the British to accept.
Therefore, one of the core elements of Starmer's inaugural speech was the promise that the new government would repay the trust of the people, serve the people, and "change will begin immediately".
We have also noticed that one of the most important changes in the Labour Party is likely to be in its attitude towards China.
According to CNBC, the new administration's top agenda is to deal with the sensitive relationship between the global superpower and its geopolitical rivals, the United States and China.
The Financial Times reported that Labor's shadow foreign secretary David Lamy harshly criticized Sunak's China policy at a press conference, saying that he was surprised that Sunak's government had neglected to engage with China, "In the face of such an important country as China, Britain needs to have a coherent policy."
Lamy then revealed that the British government will actively engage with China in all aspects, and not only foreign secretaries, but also ministers and ministers from other departments should visit China.
It should be pointed out that during the Sunak era, then Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited China in August 2023, when Cleverly also stated that the two governments should work together to strengthen economic and trade ties.
But less than two months later, Britain announced the replacement of the foreign secretary, replaced by former Prime Minister David Cameron, originally from the resume, Cameron's prime minister era, also opened the Sino-British "golden decade", we also evaluated him as "an old friend of the Chinese people".
However, after taking office as foreign secretary this time, Cameron showed a tough attitude towards China, and even publicly shouted that the West should think of an alternative to China.
Although the British Labour Party has made it clear that it will strengthen its engagement with China, in terms of overall strategy, it is impossible for Britain to cut off from the United States, and its overall tone is difficult to change.