Rishi Sunak’s talks with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, were cancelled on Wednesday after the missile strike in Poland upended plans for the last day of the G20 summit in Bali.
Mr Sunak would have been the first UK prime minister to hold face-to-face talks with Mr Xi in almost five years, in a move that drew criticism from some Tory China hardliners.
Downing Street said that the cancellation was a result of changing diaries in the wake of the breaking news from Ukraine, with difficulties finding time for the meeting.
Mr Sunak had been due to see Mr Xi at around 3.30pm on Wednesday in Bali, around the same time the Prime Minister had a call with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, scheduled at the last minute.
‘Nothing unusual’ about talks being cancelled
Mr Sunak also had his bilateral meeting with the Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister, cancelled after an emergency gathering of the G7 world leaders plus those of Nato countries was called to discuss the Polish strike.
A Downing Street official said there was nothing “unusual” about the cancellation of the talks given the circumstances, saying it was “understandable”.
The spokesman declined to say whether China led the decision to scrap the talks. Mr Sunak had been pushing for the meeting for days, which was announced on Tuesday.
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The news of a Russian bombardment of missiles on Ukraine had complicated Mr Xi’s position at the G20, given he had distanced Beijing from the Kremlin at the summit.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Cabinet minister and notable China critic, had been critical of Mr Sunak’s decision to hold a meeting.
Sir Iain said on Tuesday: “I am worried that the present Prime Minister, when he meets Xi Jinping, will be perceived as weak because it now looks like we’re drifting into appeasement with China, which is a disaster as it was in the 1930s and so it will be now,” he said.
“If we don’t have them down as a strategic threat, then nothing gets done on the ever pressing threat that they pose. . .in what world are they not a threat to us? They’re a threat to our values, they’re a threat to economic stability, they’re a threat to us because of their failure to cooperate with the WHO early on that led to Covid spreading all over the world.”
PM rejects suggestions he is ‘going soft’ on China
Sir Iain added: “They only understand strength and strength of purpose. Xi Jinping will see him as a weak leader and that’s how Xi Jinping behaves.”
The Prime Minister on Tuesday rejected suggestions he was going “soft” on China during a round of TV interviews in Bali.
Mr Sunak told Sky News: “I think it’s an indisputable fact of the global economy that China is a big part of it. And if we want to solve big global challenges like public health, like Russia and Ukraine, fixing the global economy or indeed climate change, it’s important to have a dialogue and to engage with China as part of solving those challenges.”
