Rishi Sunak seeks to maintain dialogue with China but will have to be clear about the threat

Published

3 years ago

March 13, 2023

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There’s a run on a bank, meltdown at the BBC about its proximity to government and Rishi Sunak needs to prove on Wednesday’s Budget that he has not abandoned growth.

Yet on Sunday the prime minister flew 5,000 miles to the US west coast to deal with a threat that may one day eclipse them all: China.

Mr Sunak will stand alongside US President Joe Biden and Australian PM Anthony Albanese and declare that China poses the biggest threat to the UK economy of any country, and what they plan to do about it.

This stops short of what Mr Sunak said during the leadership contest – that China poses the biggest long-term threat to Britain overall, implying some form of military danger.

Some analysts think that war over Taiwan could come in the second half of this decade, and no one knows how incendiary such a battle would be.

Nevertheless, the PM emphatically walked back from that on the plane with journalists on Sunday, saying it was neither “smart nor sophisticated” to use that language.

However what’s clear is that all three leaders have co-ordinated their language and approach to be unveiled on Monday, and that the mildly more moderate tone – which also saw Mr Sunak refuse to endorse the laboratory leak as the most likely cause of the pandemic – part of an approach to try and maintain a dialogue with China and not tip into unnecessary confrontation.

Leaving the door ajar, Mr Sunak said on the plane to the US that isolation was not the right approach, as it is effectively with Russia, suggesting he strongly believes future conflict is not yet inevitable.

“The size of their economy, it is necessary and right to engage with them in order to try and make a difference on things that we care about, whether that is for example, tackling climate change, global health, macroeconomic stability- that’s what all our allies think,” he said.

“Whether it’s Chancellor Scholz or President Macron going next month… President Biden, Albanese, I think everyone shares exactly the same approach which is not to ignore China [but] to engage, be robust about defending things that we care about, and engage with what is a very large and influential player on the global scene on the areas where there’s common interest or we can shape things in a positive direction.”

None of this means the government isn’t clear-eyed about the potential Chinese threat. They see China able to mobilise any part of its economy to advance the goals of the state – hence the ban on TikTok on government phones over the weekend.

There is recognition that half of the world’s shipping containers go through the straits of Taiwan, meaning that the economic disruption of war there would outweigh the impact of the invasion of Ukraine or the pandemic.

They saw what happened to free speech in Hong Kong and listened to the public pronouncements of President Xi Jinping, who just last week said the US and other “Western countries” were leading the “suppression” of China.

That is perhaps why the language might seem more moderate, but the actions in San Diego will not. Three of the biggest military powers in the world uniting to share intelligence and equipment to contain a threat in the Pacific is likely to be taken by China as a hostile act in itself.

In the latest update to the Integrated Review, Mr Sunak is effectively seeking to learn the lessons from Ukraine, creating new structures to speed up sanctions and ensure they are more effective. Meanwhile, building nuclear-powered submarines for Australia, at sites like the already-stretched Barrow in Furness site, is also likely to be greeted with concern by China.

The government believes that China is not yet at a tipping point where confrontation is inevitable. Whether the actions – if not the words spoken – of the next 36 hours make it more likely, however, remains to be seen.

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Before and after images of Jamaica show destruction left by Hurricane Melissa

Published

3 hours ago

October 30, 2025

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Before and after images of Jamaica show destruction left by Hurricane Melissa

The scale of the destruction left by Hurricane Melissa as it tore across Jamaica is now being revealed by the first photos taken by satellites.

The eye of the storm made landfall on the southwest coast of the island, 75 miles from the capital Kingston, on Tuesday.

Before and after images from Vantor’s satellites show the impact of the 185mph winds on the town of Black River, the capital of St Elizabeth Parish.

Use the sliders below to see the same areas of Jamaica before and after the hurricane struck.

There is widespread damage. Some houses and businesses are without roofs, and others have been destroyed altogether.

The covered food market is in ruins. So is St John Anglican church, one of the oldest in Jamaica – only its bell tower still stands.

Houses that lined the shore would have born the brunt of the storm surge.

Further along the coast is the fishing village of White House.

Streets have been reduced to piles of rubble. Trees have been stripped of their leaves by the wind.

The west of Jamaica is the country’s bread basket, important for growing food.

But fields are underwater, flooded by up to a metre of rain that fell as the vast storm system passed over.

Many crops will have been destroyed and the government has appealed for vegetable seeds so farmers can quickly plant crops again.

On the northwest coast is the resort of Montego Bay.

The container terminal and oil storage tanks in the port have been inundated by the storm surge and are surrounded by water.

It’s estimated that 400,000 people in Jamaica have been affected by the hurricane.

And the cost of the devastation is immense.

Estimates by hazard analysts Enki Research put the bill at £5.8bn. That’s more than a third of Jamaica’s GDP – a measure of its economic wealth.

It will take months and international support to put Jamaica back on its feet.

World

Donald Trump says tariffs will be cut after ‘amazing’ meeting with Xi Jinping

Published

20 hours ago

October 30, 2025

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Donald Trump says tariffs will be cut after 'amazing' meeting with Xi Jinping

Donald Trump has described crucial trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping as “amazing” – and says he will visit Beijing in April.

The leaders of the world’s two biggest economies met in South Korea as they tried to defuse growing tensions – with both countries imposing aggressive tariffs on exports since the president’s second term began.

Catch up on Trump-Xi meeting

Aboard Air Force One, Mr Trump confirmed tariffs on Chinese goods exported to the US will be reduced, which could prove much-needed relief to consumers.

It was also agreed that Beijing will work “hard” to stop fentanyl flowing into the US.

Semiconductor chips were another issue raised during their 100-minute meeting, but the president admitted certain issues weren’t discussed.

“On a scale of one to 10, the meeting with Xi was 12,” he told reporters en route back to the US.

Xi a ‘tough negotiator’, says Trump

The talks conclude a whirlwind visit across Asia – with Mr Trump saying he was “too busy” to see Kim Jong Un.

However, the president said he would be willing to fly back to see the North Korean leader, with a view to discussing denuclearisation.

Mr Trump had predicted negotiations with his Chinese counterpart would last for three or four hours – but their meeting ended in less than two.

The pair shook hands before the summit, with the US president quipping: “He’s a tough negotiator – and that’s not good!”

It marks the first face-to-face meeting between both men since 2019 – back in Mr Trump’s first term.

There were signs that Beijing had extended an olive branch to Washington ahead of the talks, with confirmation China will start buying US soybeans again.

American farmers have been feeling the pinch since China stopped making purchases earlier this year – not least because the country was their biggest overseas market.

Chinese stocks reached a 10-year high early on Thursday as investors digested their meeting, with the yuan rallying to a one-year high against the US dollar.

Analysis: A fascinating power play

Sky News Asia correspondent Helen-Ann Smith – who is in Busan where the talks took place – said it was fascinating to see the power play between both world leaders.

She said: “Trump moved quickly to dominate the space – leaning in, doing all the talking, even responding very briefly to a few thrown questions.

“That didn’t draw so much as an eyebrow raise from his counterpart, who was totally inscrutable. Xi does not like or respond well to unscripted moments, Trump lives for them.”

On Truth Social, Mr Trump had described the summit as a gathering of the “G2” – a nod to America and China’s status as the world’s two biggest economies.

While en route to see President Xi, he also revealed that the US “Department of War” has now been ordered to start testing nuclear weapons for the first time since 1992.

World

Tens of thousands killed in two days in Sudan city, analysts believe

Published

24 hours ago

October 30, 2025

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Tens of thousands killed in two days in Sudan city, analysts believe

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the Sudanese city of Al Fashir by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a two-day window after the paramilitary group captured the regional capital, analysts believe.

Sky News is not able to independently verify the claim by Yale Humanitarian Labs, as the city remains under a telecommunications blackout.

Stains and shapes resembling blood and corpses can be seen from space in satellite images analysed by the research lab.

Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of Yale Humanitarian Labs, said: “In the past 48 hours since we’ve had [satellite] imagery over Al Fashir, we see a proliferation of objects that weren’t there before RSF took control of Al Fashir – they are approximately 1.3m to 2m long which is critical because in satellite imagery at very high resolution, that’s the average length of a human body lying vertical.”

Mini Minawi, the governor of North Darfur, said on X that 460 civilians have been killed in the last functioning hospital in the city.

The Sudan Doctors Network has also shared that the RSF “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside Al Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards”.

World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was “appalled and deeply shocked” by the reports.

Satellite images support the claims of a massacre at Al Saudi Hospital, according to Mr Raymond, who said YHL’s report detailed “a large pile of them [objects believed to be bodies] against a wall at one building at Saudi hospital. And we believe that’s consistent with reports that patients and staff were executed en masse”.

In a video message released on Wednesday, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged “violations in Al Fashir” and claimed “an investigation committee should start to hold any soldier or officer accountable”.

The commander is known for committing atrocities in Darfur in the early 2000s as a Janjaweed militia leader, and the RSF has been accused of carrying out genocide in Darfur 20 years on.

Sources have told Sky News the RSF is holding doctors, journalists and politicians captive, demanding ransoms from some families to release their loved ones.

One video shows a man from Al Fashir with an armed man kneeling on the ground, telling his family to pay 15,000. The currency was not made clear.

In some cases, ransoms have been paid, but then more messages come demanding that more money be transferred to secure release.

Muammer Ibrahim, a journalist based in the city, is currently being held by the RSF, who initially shared videos of him crouched on the ground, surrounded by fighters, announcing his hometown had been captured under duress.

He is being held incommunicado as his family scrambles to negotiate his release. Muammer courageously covered the siege of Al Fashir for months, enduring starvation and shelling.

The Committee to Protect Journalists regional director Sara Qudah said the abduction of Muammar Ibrahim “is a grave and alarming reminder that journalists in Al Fashir are being targeted simply for telling the truth”.