China’s threats must be challenged robustly

The arrest of a parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying for China appears to represent a significant escalation in Beijing’s attempts to interfere with British democracy. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in New Delhi for the G20 summit, confronted Chinese premier Li Qiang over this deeply worrying incident.

While this latest provocation is the most worrying to date, it is also just that: the latest in a series of incidents signalling considerable effort on the part of Beijing to compromise this country’s security. It was just two months ago that Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee issued a report stating that China has managed to “successfully penetrate every sector of the UK’s economy”. The head of MI5 has previously described threats emanating from the Chinese Communist Party as representing a “game-changing strategic challenge”.

The Chinese regime under Xi Jinping’s leadership has ratcheted up the oppression of the Uyghur and Tibetan peoples, systematically undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy, and raised the threat to Taiwan to an unprecedented level. 

As Mr Sunak returns home, he does so to a country where the full import of this threat has yet to sink in. At the core of our current defence strategy is the tilt towards the Indo-Pacific, where London has expended a great deal of effort building military and economic partnerships through accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Aukus pact. 

Mr Sunak used his first foreign-policy speech as Prime Minister to declare that the “golden era” of Anglo-Chinese relations was “over”, and described the country at a G7 meeting as the “biggest challenge of our age to global security and prosperity”. But he has nevertheless proved unwilling to label the country a threat.

This confusion has consequences. The Government has set a deadline to remove Huawei components from Britain’s 5G networks: from its core by the end of this year and throughout the system by the end of 2027. It is now in the process of removing Chinese-made surveillance equipment from “sensitive” sites. A country more attuned to the difficulties posed by Beijing’s ambitions may well not have found itself in this situation. 

It is vital that this latest incident serves to wake the Government from its slumber. It is time for admirable rhetoric to be backed by action.