Former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has vowed to take a tough stance on China if he becomes Britain’s next prime minister, calling it the “number one threat” to domestic and global security.

In a statement, he accused China of “stealing our technology and infiltrating our universities” by taking position in the Downing Street race against his rival, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. He pointed out that the Chinese are “supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fascist invasion of Ukraine by buying oil from him and trying to intimidate their neighbors, including Taiwan.”

Sunak emphasized that they “torture, detain and indoctrinate, especially in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, in violation of human rights”, stressing that “I will not allow China to take over our universities and I will provide British companies and government institutions with a security in which they need”.

And China’s state-run Global Times previously viewed Sunak as the only candidate in the race to have a “clear and practical vision for the development of relations between the UK and China,” while the British Daily Mail summed up the stance as “an approval no one wants”.