RISHI Sunak looks weak to Beijing and our allies due to his soft stance on China, Sir Iain Duncan Smith has warned.
The top Tory piled pressure on the PM to harden Britain’s official position towards the rogue nation.
The “get tough” call came in the wake of the spy balloon row.
A major review will today warn British police forces are “shot through” with cameras and other surveillance kit from China.
Several respondents to a survey of police forces in England and Wales, as well as the MoD and National Crime Agency, said their camera systems were using equipment from firms such as Dahua, Hikvision, Honeywell, Huawei and Nuuo, despite security concerns.
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Biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner Fraser Sampson said: “We should, for security and ethical reasons, be asking ourselves whether it is ever appropriate for public bodies to use equipment made by companies with such serious questions hanging over them.”
Mr Sunak is resisting calls to designate Beijing a “threat” to the UK in the upcoming defence review.
But former Tory boss Sir Iain said: “If China is not a threat now, when will it be?”
He writes in The Sun today: “The reality is that our Integrated Review is now utterly out of date. It needs to reflect the growing threat from China.
“From the genocide of the Uyghur to the use of Chinese-run technology, we can no longer pretend that this concept of robust pragmatism looks anything else but weak in Beijing and among our allies.”
He accused the PM of “significant weakening” of language towards China — after ex-PM Liz Truss called it “the most serious long-term threat to our values and way of life”.