The Telegraph, 3rd September 2024
Labour is already surrendering to China (telegraph.co.uk)
Keir Starmer promised to challenge China where necessary. He is failing in the first duty of any government
For all its tough talk about our national security, this Labour government has wasted no time in backsliding. It’s now plain for all to see that, among other things, it has no intention whatsoever of dealing with the unprecedented level of malign activity by China.
It has been easy for some in the UK to minimise China as presenting a “challenge”, or – even worse – pander to Beijing in the hope of commercial gain. But the reality is far more alarming. As Home Secretary, I was under no illusion: China is a threat to the UK and is aggressively targeting our people and our democracy. Yes, it is an economic superpower, but in balancing the trade-offs between security and prosperity, given the gravity of the hostility by China, this is no time for complacency.
At the Home Office, I saw the impact of Chinese bellicosity in the UK. The list is too long for this article, but in recent years we have been on the receiving end of: prolific and malicious cyber activity by APT10 – one of the best known hacking groups – on behalf of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA); the targeting of UK Parliamentarians and diplomats; vulnerable policing and security services due to the prevalence of the ‘digital asbestos’ of Chinese technology; transnational repression of Chinese dissidents in the UK through ‘Chinese police stations’; Confucius Institutes throughout UK academia, many of which are run effectively by the Chinese Communist Party; theft of intellectual property and technology from the UK under the guise of the ‘Chinese Talent Programmes’; covert and unlawful acquisition of data; espionage; supply chain disruption; and control of critical national infrastructure disguised as investment. This is before one even considers the probable genocide by the Chinese state committed against the Uyghur Muslims.
The Conservative government acted in response to the threats: with sanctions, setting up the new National Cyber Security Centre in 2016 (which has done excellent defensive work), and cancelling the use of Huawei in the UK’s 5G network. We blocked China’s attempt to takeover the UK’s largest microchip plant, Newport Wafer Fab, on national security grounds.
I accept that there was more to do. But Keir Starmer promised to challenge China where necessary. Given the chance to demonstrate such robustness, he has already failed.
Firstly, the government quietly slipped out the news that they would postpone the implementation of crucial national security measures contained in the National Security Act 2023. I delivered this legislation to enable much-needed transparency through the new Foreign Influence Registration Scheme which would have obligated businesses and individuals to declare whether they act on behalf of a foreign state. Those working on behalf of China would have been subject to enhanced vetting to protect our national interests. It commanded cross-party support and should have gone live this year. Instead transparency and integrity have been put off for no good reason by this new government.
Secondly, and disgracefully, we now learn that the Government has ditched the essential Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 in part because of pressure from China. This flagship Conservative law protected freedom of speech on campus, undoing the cancel culture that has developed in academia in recent years. It would have protected academics and students who bravely speak up against Chinese oppression. That has now been dumped because it allegedly displeased Beijing, and many universities – in hock to Chinese benefactors – lobbied the government, which pathetically caved.
Thirdly, our new Foreign Secretary has already broken his promises. Only last year, David Lammy said that he would declare China’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide. In 2021, Labour backed a Commons motion accusing China of such a crime. And yet, just last week, upon his meeting with Chinese Ministers, he was strangely silent about calling out the atrocities and political indoctrination of approximately one million Uighur Muslims in North West China. The claim of genocide was already supported by the US government and an independent tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC. Calling out human rights violations appears to have been a mere election tactic rather than a serious foreign policy.
And lastly, Labour is playing with our national security when it comes to over-reliance on China. Just when the UK needs to wean ourselves off Chinese steel, Labour is on the brink of abandoning one of the UK’s biggest steel-making plants. It has been reported that British Steel in Scunthorpe is set to stop importing coke and coal meaning its blast furnaces will be turned off later this year. All part of Miliband’s net zero militancy and climate extremism, this will be devastating; thousands of people will lose their jobs. But the impact is wide-ranging because the Chinese owner, Jingye, will now potentially import 3 million tonnes of steel from China. As the Royal United Services Institute has set out, the less steel we produce at home, the weaker our defence capabilities and economic resilience – we are now the only country in the G20 unable to make virgin steel. Disproportionate dependency on a hostile state for a vital commodity puts our national security at risk. Can we count on Labour to protect our sovereign capability for blast furnace steel? Not at all.
So the early signs are not just worrying. Born out of naivety and complacency, they signify a collapse in any serious challenge to the Chinese regime, weakness in the face of aggression and a dereliction of the first duty of any government: to keep the people safe.
