In March, the news that a British parliamentary researcher was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing drew attention to the British government’s China policy during this period.
Moves over the past six months to thaw five years of icy relations between London and Beijing – including a series of high-level face-to-face meetings between senior British and Chinese officials – have sparked an outcry from hawkish Conservative MPs reaction.
However, a security breach at the heart of the House of Commons that emerged on Sunday has alarmed moderate China skeptics in parliament.
The government now faces questions from MPs about which ministers knew the circumstances and timing of the arrests and whether the matter factored into British foreign policy considerations towards China. Critics deride Britain’s China policy as too soft, while ministers argue it is a balancing act between economics and politics. Safety considerations.
More pressing in the eyes of many members of Congress who are skeptical of China is the impact of the alleged espionage on their security, and even more worrying is the possibility that activists critical of Beijing may have had contact with alleged spies.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly faces some of the toughest questions. In April, just weeks after the alleged spy was captured by police, he gave a landmark speech at his official residence, publicly recalibrating Britain’s foreign policy toward China.
In his speech, Cleverley insisted that the UK must “engage strongly and constructively” with China to “manage risks and deliver results”. He refused to describe Beijing as a “threat,” “partner” or “adversary,” insisting that such one-dimensional characterizations were unrealistic and unwise.
His arguments in favor of a diplomatic balancing act were dismissed by hardline hawks, including Conservative MP and former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, one of five MPs sanctioned by China in 2021 .
China skeptics in parliament launched a similar attack on Chancellor Rishi Sunak when he described China as “epoch-making” in a comprehensive review of the government’s foreign and defense policy published in March. “Challenge” rather than “threat” On the 13th of the same day, it was reported that the spy was arrested.
In May this year, British Investment Secretary Lord Dominic Johnson made his first official visit to Hong Kong in five years, and the British government further upgraded its engagement with China.
Johnson is on a mission to deepen commercial ties with the Chinese territory, focusing on financial services, infrastructure and sustainable development, although he insisted Britain would “clear our rights to take action when Beijing breaches its international commitments or violates human rights”.
The visit, Beijing’s first since it cracked down on Hong Kong protests with a sweeping national security law in 2020, sparked an uproar from pro-democracy campaigners and Conservative hawks.
Last month, Cleverly became the first foreign secretary to visit China since 2018, another major step forward in improving UK-China relations.
He told the Financial Times that his message to his hosts, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, was that “the UK is open for business from Beijing” as long as it does not cause national security concerns.
After the Sunday Times revealed the arrests, Sunak met Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi and expressed his “grave concerns about China’s interference in British parliamentary democracy.”
On Monday, he told MPs he was “shocked” by reports of Chinese espionage in Westminster and vowed to “defend our democracy and security”.
He also said Cleverly had raised the issue of Chinese interference in Britain’s democratic institutions during a recent trip to Beijing, but he did not confirm whether the foreign secretary was aware of and raised specific allegations about the alleged spy.
Several ministers have defended Britain’s decision to engage with China, which has been backed by foreign policy analysts.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said it was vital “to be able to look the Chinese in the eye and call out unacceptable behaviour”.
Olivia O’Sullivan, director of the British World Program at the Chatham House think tank, questioned what would be gained by disengagement “when understanding a country that is so important to gain insight into what it might do and influence on China” “Behavior is difficult.”
Government insiders also point out that the UK has introduced new national security powers designed to curb Beijing’s ability to influence key industries and used them to “convene” eight deals involving Chinese investment in UK companies in the past year. Figures released earlier this summer.
Dan Lomas, an intelligence and security analyst at the University of Nottingham, said the arrests on espionage charges were also important and showed “the UK’s potential to flex its muscles and show it is ready to act”.
However, since news of Sunday’s arrests broke, there has been more than just unease over Britain’s stance on China. The potential impact on the safety of lawmakers, activists and their family, friends and contacts in China has also sparked alarm.
Additionally, members of Congress and activists expressed outrage that they only learned of the alleged security breach through the media.
According to Westminster insiders, the arrested former parliamentary researcher had some contact with some MPs from the China Research Group, a group set up by Conservative MPs to study the long-term challenges and opportunities posed by Beijing.
That includes some contacts with Alicia Kearns, the Conservative chair of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, and Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, people familiar with the matter said. Contact with Tugendhat was limited and the two met only a few times before he became minister.
Hong Kong activists accuse the British government of failing to protect them and other diaspora activists from the man and his contacts in Hong Kong, although the former researcher denies the charges against them and prosecutors have yet to decide whether to press charges. risks of. Mainland China or Hong Kong.
“I’m shocked that it’s been six months since the arrest and we only found out about it because of media reports,” said Finn Lau, the British founder of Hong Kong Freedom Group, who met with police once. Accused spy.
In July, Hong Kong police offered a reward of HK$1 million ($127,665) each for information leading to the arrest of Lau and seven other pro-democracy activists. “Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs publicly opposed the bounty, I did not receive any briefing on this espionage case at all,” Liu said.
“The lack of transparency in the handling of this case poses serious risks to dissidents who are already at risk of criticism,” said Chung Ching-kwong, a Hong Kong activist who works for the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac) in London. China, like the Uyghurs and Same as Tibetans. “
Ipac executive director Luke de Pulford warned that the alleged spy was very interested in and “very strongly briefed” against the work of his organization, adding to further concerns raised concerns that any information about its activists might be collated.
The arrest of the alleged spy follows a report by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee in July, which warned that China’s national intelligence agency was almost certainly the largest in the world and “dwarfed the British intelligence community” .
China called the espionage accusations “baseless.”
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