China: UK criticism risks poisoning ties

Bloomberg

China’s Ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, said British politicians who have called for a re-setting of
the ties between the two
nations risk poisoning the relationship.
Anti-China rhetoric is in danger of undermining international solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, he said in a webinar on Tuesday.
The ambassador’s comment is a thinly veiled warning to senior Conservatives, including Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who said last month it could not be “business as usual” with China after Covid-19.
“Regrettably a few politicians in the U.K. have been addicted to the cold war mentality to compare China to the former Soviet Union and urge a review of the China-U.K. relationship, and even call for a new cold war,” Liu said. “If they go unchecked they will poison the China-U.K. joint effort, and even international solidarity just as it’s needed most.”
The envoy said the global public health crisis highlighted how “helping each other is the only way to a final victory” over Covid-19.