China targets Britain’s commercial, academic institutions as government fails to recognise threat: MP report

Beijing’s aspirations to become economic and technological superpower pose ‘greatest risk’ to UK, according to long-awaited parliamentary report
Successive British governments faulted for focusing on ‘short-term or acute threats’ and failing to recognise China’s ‘whole-of-state’ approach

China-UK relations

Chad Brayin London

Published: 12:10am, 14 Jul 2023

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China has ruthlessly targeted Britain’s commercial and academic institutions as part of its ambition to be an economic and technological superpower, whilst successive UK governments have been slow to recognise the threat posed by Beijing, according to an influential committee of MPs.

The long-awaited report by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee found that Chinese institutions had successfully penetrated every sector of the British economy, in part because of a willingness by UK governments to accept Chinese investment “with few questions asked” until recently.

The committee said Beijing had stepped over the line in exerting influence in other British institutions, such as academia, to push its international narrative.

It also said China’s global ambitions under President Xi Jinping to make other nations reliant upon it posed the “greatest risk” to Britain.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meets Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council, in Beijing on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

“The nature of China’s engagement, influence and interference activity in the UK is difficult to detect, but even more concerning is the fact that the government may not previously have been looking for it,” the report found.

“The UK is now playing catch-up – and the whole of the government has its work cut out to understand and counter China’s ‘whole-of-state’ threat.”

The committee’s inquiry began in 2019 and faced various delays, partly owing to lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. Its inquiry was concluded in May, with the report released on Thursday.

The Chinese embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

UK to remove Chinese-made surveillance equipment from sensitive sites

In its highly critical report, the committee said Britain, unlike the United States, had failed to develop a national strategy to protect critical and emerging technology and that a lack of action to protect those assets “is a serious failure, and one that the UK may feel the consequences of for years to come”.

“There is no evidence that Whitehall policy departments have the necessary resources, expertise or knowledge of the threat to investigate and counter the Chinese whole-of-state approach,” the committee said.

Government policy had been dominated by a focus on “short-term or acute threats”, the committee said.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (left) and US President Joe Biden leave 10 Downing Street in London after a meeting on Monday. Photo: AP

“It has consistently failed to think long term – unlike China – and China has historically been able to take advantage of this,” the report found.

“The government must adopt a longer-term planning cycle with regards to the future security of the UK if it is to face Chinese ambitions, which are not reset every political cycle.”

The report also took British universities to task for their willingness to accept Chinese money for research, without fully understanding how that research could be used for military applications.

“While some have expressed concern, others seem to be turning a blind eye, happy simply to take the money,” the committee said.

British lawmakers want harder line against ‘threat’ posed by China

As part of its report, the committee called for greater transparency in the source of foreign donations to UK institutions of higher learning.

The report comes as backbenchers have been calling for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government to take a more aggressive approach to confront Beijing on issues ranging from human rights to economic security.

Sunak has advocated for a more nuanced approach, saying in a speech last year that Britain needed to “evolve” its foreign policy on China.

A refresh of the UK’s defence and diplomatic strategy earlier this year described China as an “epoch-defining challenge”, but did not go as far as labelling China a strategic threat as some MPs had hoped.

However, officials have pointed to a number of measures used by Britain’s government in the past year to counter China, including the National Security and Investment Act to block some foreign takeovers in sensitive sectors, a greater focus on expanding its ties in the Indo-Pacific region and the Aukus military alliance with Australia and the US.