Democracies around world must form new alliance to counter China, says Sunak
He suggested a grouping of democratic market economies could work together to reduce reliance on China for manufacturing and technology and have the combined industrial might to rival the Asian superpower's capacity to build military equipment.
'In an era of full-spectrum competition, we can't trade with rivals the same way we do with friends,' he said.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he said democracies should band together or risk letting 'an authoritarian axis shape a new world order where might makes right, where technology bolsters authoritarianism and curtails individual liberty, and where trade is a weapon of coercion'.
The former prime minister said: 'The next decade will be one of the most dangerous yet most transformational periods the world has ever seen. Democratic market states must seize this moment and shape it.
'If they don't, it will be the axis of authoritarian states — China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — that takes advantage of this opportunity.'
He said 'old-fashioned great power competition' is returning in the form of China presenting the US with a 'credible economic, technological and military rival for the first time in 40 years'.
In a message to Donald Trump, he said: 'The US must realise that no country on its own can face down the axis of authoritarian states.
'But together, democratic market economies can outcompete any rival coalition and deliver peace and prosperity for their people.'
He said a broader alliance than Nato was needed, spanning the Indo-Pacific as well as the the Euro-Atlantic.
Mr Sunak said Jiangnan in China has more capacity than 'every US shipyard put together', but a combined allied production strategy with South Korea and Japan would allow competition with China on building up naval fleets.
The economic strength of a democratic alliance could also persuade 'key global swing states' to back the US and its allies rather than China and Russia.
Greater trade among allies would also reduce the 'economic pain' from breaking away from China in strategically important areas.
Countries that fail to restrict technology transfer to China or leave themselves dependent on Chinese technology 'should be excluded from reciprocal free trade'.
'If China overtakes us in artificial intelligence, it will gain not only economic but strategic primacy, given its potential military applications,' he warned.
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The Guardian
24 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Dear Keir Starmer, stop cosying up to Donald Trump – or he'll drag Britain down with him
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Scotsman
26 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Trump visit will stretch Police Scotland resources to the limit
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The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘People have seen through him and he's not welcome': Scotland tees up for Trump visit
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Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Across Scotland, on the west coast, the residents of Turnberry are facing road diversions, security checkpoints and a swelling police presence, with transit vehicles trundling along the country roads. There is metal fencing around Trump's luxury resort and lines of police in hi-vis jackets blocking the beach, where the late Janey Godley regularly stood to greet him with her infamous handwritten protest sign: 'Trump is a cunt.' In March, Trump described members of a pro-Palestine group accused of vandalising the Turnberry course by painting the grass with the words 'Gaza is not 4 sale' as 'terrorists'. On Friday, some local people were exercised about the 'partial lockdown' they found themselves in. One pensioner questioned why the UK government was contributing to expensive policing for what is a private visit while limiting his generation's winter fuel payments. But others mentioned the employment Trump had brought to the area. Menie's new course is dedicated to the president's late mother, Mary Anne Trump, who was raised on the Isle of Lewis, further up the west coast, before immigrating to the US. In Lewis's main town of Stornoway, Sarah Venus has rehung the protest banner she was ordered by the local council to remove in May. It reads: 'Shame on you Donald John,' a maternal-style admonishment prompted by his treatment of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at a White House press conference in February. The banner will now go on a tour of the island around private homes, as Trump's visit continues into next week. 'This time the protests will be a bit different because of the broader context,' says Venus. 'People are beginning to connect the dots and realise this is a transnational struggle against fascism. It's not just happening over there in the US and maybe there's an opportunity to be vigilant and head it off over here.'
