UK warns China secrecy over military expansion risks ‘tragic miscalculation’

British foreign minister James Cleverly urged China to be more open about what he called the biggest military build-up in peacetime history and said secrecy around its plans could lead to a “tragic miscalculation”.

Relations between Britain and China are the worst in decades after London restricted Chinese investment over national security concerns and expressed concern at Beijing’s increasing military and economic assertiveness.

In a speech at Mansion House in London’s historic financial district on Tuesday, Cleverly said Britain should engage “robustly and constructively” with China despite what he called “revulsion” over the treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang.

In a warning over the future of Taiwan, Cleverly said invading the self-ruled island would destroy world trade, and distance would offer no protection from the “catastrophic blow” to the global and Chinese economy.

A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the greatest threat to peace in the Taiwan Strait was the “separatist acts of Taiwan independence and the connivance and support of foreign forces”.

Cleverly’s speech is the clearest attempt to explain Britain’s approach to China under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said at the end of last year that the so-called “golden era” of relations under former prime minister David Cameron was over.