Spy chiefs handed £600m to tackle China ‘threat'
Spy chiefs have been handed an extra £600 million to fight the 'threat' of China, David Lammy has announced, after an audit into the UK's vulnerability to Beijing.
The review, which began after the election last year, found that Chinese spying, interference in the UK's democracy and attempts to undermine the economy had increased in recent years.
In Tuesday's national security strategy, ministers promised 'greater robustness and consistency' in the way the UK dealt with China but acknowledged the desire for a 'trade and investment relationship' with the world's second-biggest economy.
Mr Lammy referred to China explicitly as a 'threat', a term that Downing Street later refused to support.
The 'China audit', which examined the extent of the UK's relationship with Beijing, recommended increasing the Government's ability to engage with the Asian economic superpower while increasing 'resilience' against risks.
The Foreign Secretary said on Tuesday that Britain would increase its intelligence budget by £600 million in light of the findings.
He said that ministers 'understand that China is a sophisticated and persistent threat ' - an apparent shift from the Government's previous description of it being a 'challenge'.
But he also told MPs that in the past decade, China has delivered a third of global economic growth, becoming the world's second-largest economy and, together with Hong Kong, the UK's third-largest trading partner.
'Not engaging with China is therefore no choice at all,' he said. 'China's power is an inescapable fact.'
Mr Lammy said the audit painted a 'complex picture' but 'the UK's approach to China will be founded on progressive realism, taking the world as it is, not as we wish it to be'.
A Downing Street spokesman later refused to repeat Mr Lammy's description of China as a 'threat' – reopening a debate about the use of the word, which had plagued Conservative prime ministers over the last five years.
'Potentially huge consequences'
Sources close to the Foreign Secretary insisted there was no disagreement between him and No10 on the issue, and that Downing Street had advanced sight of the statement in which he used the word 'threat' several times.
A summary of the audit's findings - including guidance for colleges and universities - which rely on Chinese students and partnerships for vital funding - was laid out in the national security strategy.
'The challenge of competition from China - which ranges from military modernisation to an assertion of state power that encompasses economic, industrial, science and technology policy - has potentially huge consequences for the lives of British citizens,' it said.
'Cap in hand to China'
Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said the Government 'has gone cap in hand to China to bail out its terrible handling of the British economy', and pointed to the decision to 'call in' a planning decision on the new Chinese 'super embassy' in London.
The controversial plan will see China open a new site in East London, which opponents claim will allow them to hack telecom cables.
Angela Rayner, who is responsible for planning, is reportedly poised to approve the application but has declined to comment in public about it.
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