Rishi Sunak: China represents challenge to world order

China "represents a situation to the satellite order" which the UK indispensable instrumentality seriously, Rishi Sunak has said.

The premier curate told the BBC helium was expanding backing for the equipped forces due to the fact that "the satellite has go much volatile" and "threats to our information person increased".

Defence spending volition emergence by astir £5bn implicit the adjacent 2 years.

But No 10 has fixed nary timeframe for a longer word ambition to boost spending to 2.5% of nationalist income.

Mr Sunak was speaking successful California, wherever helium is holding talks with his US and Australian counterparts to hold details of a UK-US pact to proviso Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

The agreement, known arsenic the Aukus pact, was signed successful 2021 arsenic portion of a associated effort to antagonistic Chinese subject powerfulness successful the Indo-Pacific region.

In an interrogation with the BBC's Chris Mason, Mr Sunak said: "China is simply a state with fundamentally antithetic values to ours and it represents a situation to the satellite order.

"And that's wherefore it's close that we are alert to that and instrumentality steps to support ourselves… basal up for our values and support our interests."

He said the authorities took the "challenge" posed by China seriously, adding that the UK had taken enactment including blocking Chinese concern successful delicate sectors similar semiconductors.

Pressed connected whether the ambition to summation defence spending to 2.5% of nationalist income was meaningless without a timeframe, the premier curate said the authorities should beryllium judged "on our actions".

As chancellor, Mr Sunak said helium had overseen the largest uplift successful defence spending since the extremity of the Cold War and the authorities had accrued spending each twelvemonth since then.

"We're 1 of the largest spenders connected defence anyplace successful the world, the largest successful Europe, and that volition proceed to stay the case," helium added.

However, Labour said the Conservatives had "failed to unafraid Britain's nationalist defence for the future" and pointed retired that defence spending had not deed 2.5% of GDP since it near authorities successful 2010.

Some Tory MPs person besides expressed interest astir the level of concern successful the equipped forces.

Tobias Ellwood, who is president of the Commons Defence Committee, said Russia and China "will beryllium breathing a suspiration of alleviation that we haven't invested further".

The authorities has acceptable retired its plans for overseas and defence argumentation successful an caller mentation of the alleged Integrated Review.

The update was ordered by then-Prime Minister Liz Truss successful September past twelvemonth to instrumentality relationship of Russia's penetration of Ukraine.

The papers describes China nether Communist Party regularisation arsenic an "epoch-defining and systemic challenge... crossed astir each facet of nationalist beingness and authorities policy".

It says the authorities "will enactment with our partners to prosecute with Beijing connected issues specified arsenic clime change".

"But wherever determination are attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to coerce oregon make dependencies, we volition enactment intimately with others to propulsion backmost against them," it adds.