UK Government incompetence and weakness is being fully exposed by the collapse of the now infamous Chinese spy case which is leading to fundamental questions about the relationship with China. Government insists its absolute first priority to be the security of the UK, physically and economically, and so should not the only long-term strategy with China be to wean the nation off Chinese dependence?Instead, the UK Government does the opposite, deepening that dependence, fudging the issues and appeasing not resisting.
CHINA REALITIES MAKE NONSENSE OF UK POLICY
Xi of China declares the relationship with Putin to be a partnership “without limits”. Chinese representatives declare that they cannot afford Russia not to win in Ukraine. Putin is at war with Europe in Ukraine and is sworn to reinstate the Russian Empire Westwards. Putin constantly attacks Europe, including through cyber and misinformation. China does the same, including in both cases the UK as a major target. Xi assists Putin in Ukraine.
UK intelligence services have for years advised China is a serious threat to UK security. Earlier this century the UK and others made the strategic mistake of thinking China was joining the world order constructively and now it is established that China’s strategy has long been to diminish democracies and build power militarily and economically to be able to bend the West. China’s corporations have to do the will of Xi and his Chinese Communist party, CCP. The USA has long been fearful of that reality, banning Huawei from sensitive activity in the USA, preventing major takeovers by Chinese companies, and now seeing tiktok, owned by ByDance of China, as a security threat and requiring the USA business to be put into U.S. ownership. The USA is in a battle for supremacy with China. Despite the vacillations and inconsistencies of Trump, the UK has to continue to stand with the USA, and dalliance with China surely should never be allowed to split that relationship.
In the UK the Conservatives under Cameron and Osborne wanted Chinese investment to assist in recovery after the financial crisis: China took full advantage. Since then, Chinese investment in strategic UK nuclear was reined in by previous government, as was the involvement of Huawei in the UK’s 5G programme. It looked as if the UK’s eyes were opening and lessons were learnt but the current attempts to cosset China risk repeating these obvious recent errors.
China’s tiktok is rampant in the UK. Chinese companies, the CKI group, own Northumbrian Water, but significantly also the whole of London and the Southeast and East Anglian distribution of electricity, through UK Power Networks. And so, a country which threatens our security has the ability to shut down power in the heart of the UK at will! But nobody talks about it. And, what is more, that same CKI group is now also seeking control of Thames Water, and incredibly the UK Government has not dismissed it: would not security of the UK, the Government’s declared number one priority, be even more at risk if CKI controlled the water supply as well as electricity in the UK’s very beating heart? Can the Government just ignore the security warnings about Chinese companies being at the beck and call of XI and his Communist Party?
This Government is likely to approve the new mega Chinese embassy in the heart of London despite intelligence warnings on security and USA opposition on security grounds. The Chinese refuse to disclose what they will use large tracts of the embassy for. Is not the embassy to be the home of spy craft? The Government say this is a planning matter; surely not! How is it UK Universities still engage with Chinese projects providing UK brilliance to help with technology which could be relevant to weaponry? For money of course. UK Universities for the same reason, money, are populated with tens of thousands of Chinese students, who are also at Xi’s beck and call, and it is said the CCP police those students here on UK turf.
The UK is increasing its reliance on Chinese energy equipment, for solar and wind turbines, as it races to net zero, as dogma rules over sense. There is a global, and so a UK, reliance on China for rare earth minerals without which so much high tech cannot happen. Chinese Electric vehicles, mainly through Chinese BYD, but also other companies, are flooding the UK and European market: these are highly subsidised businesses, unfairly competing with local manufacturers. Can UK Government guarantee that these high-tech imports contain no extra Chinese controlled technology for secret data gathering or even controlling the EVs? Probably not. For years China has distorted the market for steel undercutting through subsidy and again flooding markets with excess products, destroying local production. And nothing is done by the UK as its steel industry has withered. China is allowed to buy British businesses but there is no way there is reciprocity.
China has no regard for human rights, as it wipes out the culture of the Uighurs, imprisoning and brainwashing and neutering these Muslims, as the world takes note yet does nothing . UK government hypocrisy is mind blowing as it cossets human rights of illegal immigrants to the UK, yet China broke its promises on Hong Kong without a murmur bar a tut-tut. Is the only explanation for this absurd dependence a UK addiction to the opium of Chinese power?
KICK THE HABIT AND CUT DEPENDENCY
Europe is paying the price for dependency on and trusting Putin, and the UK is doing the same with Xi. It is madness. Balance of sensible trade is essential but kowtowing from a position of weakness, with a policy of appeasement, will only lead to the Chinese boot on the neck of the UK. Putin and Xi will show no respect for weakness. Strength and moral resistance may come at a price but does not the UK Government purport to stand up for the highest values?
A sensible strategy will lead to declining dependence on China, but it requires investing in things like rare earth minerals; and only just now a UK based corporate, Pensana, has dropped plans to build a rare earth refinery in the UK, preferring the USA, because the UK is too expensive. Should we not have cherished such a project and taken action to keep this rarity here? Also, the major UK rare earths supplier, Less Common Metals has been sold to USA Rare Earth – should we let such strategic companies go? A UK start up, AEM in Newcastle, is building an EV motor which is not dependent on rare earths: will it be nurtured or will its success be stifled or taken to another country such as the USA? And China threatens consequences if it does not get its embassy approved: all threats need resistance or else the road is a road to slavery. Was the China spy case stopped to avoid offending China? If so, the UK Government is becoming a Chinese vassal. Dependency on Chinese equipment and components for energy supply can easily be reduced by adapting the net zero policy.
If the UK sides with Taiwan it needs to be clear. It cannot be fudged. But fudge is what the UK Government specialises in as the China spy case is showing. And it is surely embarrassing, dangerous and will not keep the UK safe. Once again cowardice and incompetence threaten the UKs integrity and independence. A real strategy of strength and transparency over China is needed now.
See also: –
China and its Relationship with the Free World – China’s Rulers Endanger World Freedoms – The Western Laughing Stock – Strategic Vision and Courage
