Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are sparring over Communist China as they battle to succeed Boris Johnson as Tory leader and Prime Minister.

Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, has gone particularly hard at the People’s Republic of China, publishing a long Twitter thread on how he would “face down” the communist state illustrated with a poster reading ‘CHINA IS OUR NUMBER THREAT’ and bearing an image of the globe overtaken by a sinister red aura.

The Brexiteer has vowed to shut down the Confucius Institutes which have spread across the United Kingdom, notionally for the purposes of cultural exchange and teaching Mandarin but really to spread Chinese influence in the country.

He has also proposed a NATO-style alliance to contain China, protection for “key British assets” being bought up by China, and empowering the Security Service (MI5) to “provide greater support to British businesses and universities to counter Chinese industrial espionage”.

Liz Truss’s team has suggested that his rhetoric on China is especially tough because, historically, he has been viewed as a politician keen to increase Britain’s links with China — indeed, the Global Times, one of the communist regime’s propaganda mouthpieces, has effectively endorsed him for Prime Minister, because it believes he is “the one candidate with a pragmatic view of developing balanced ties with China”.

“Over the last 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 Uyghurs,” commented prominent Truss backer Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader and Cabinet minister.

“After such a litany, I have one simple question, where have you been over the last two years?” he asked wryly.

Brexit leader Nigel Farage has also picked up on these themes, giving his view of the leadership race last week he said of Sunak: “the great globalist, the man who has family links and interests with businesses in China, who is happy working hand-in-glove with the big banks, who has helped raised our taxes to the highest in 70 years”.

Truss’s team have suggested that Sunak is only now waking up to issues ministers in education and foreign affairs others have been aware of for some time — although it must be said that neither the Department of Education or the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have done much to curtail Chinese influence in Britain, particularly with respect to the Confucius Institutes and universities more generally.

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