The 12 authors agree China is not and never will be like ‘us’, the essays are also pertinent in the context of possible new US tariffs on Chinese products.
LONDON: Civitas is an independent Think Tank whose recent publication “Living with the Dragon” is a timely resource for the Labour government following Keir Starmer’s meeting with Xi Jinping at the G20 in Rio; Starmer said he wants a serious and pragmatic relationship.
The 12 authors agree China is not and never will be like “us”, the essays are also pertinent in the context of possible new US tariffs on Chinese products. It seems China is a fact of life and the associated risks and harms must be mitigated to protect national security.
It is worth noting the UK has legislated The National Security & Investment Act 2021 and The National Security Act 2023, but The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme provided for by the later has not yet been implemented.
Xi wants a system of government and one party dictatorship pan-Asia, Africa, and Latin America based on state capitalism. Beijing’s objective is to become the dominant superpower in the Western Pacific, so writes Sir Malcolm
Rifkind. He claims China’s supremacy is impossible as China’s ideology has no universal appeal, and like the Soviet model it does not want puppet governments in other states. He says the UK and western Europe are Atlantic nations, unlike US which has equal strategic interest great idea Pacific; he warns the Government to not to give the impression it is able to make contributions beyond AUKUS, to the collective security of the Indo-Pacific. The IPR is significant in the report; Liam Byrne proposes a new UK strategy for enhancing alliances with Europe, Africa and across the wider IPR. And Dr Kevin Rowlands contrasts the variety, diversity and inequality, geographic and cultural differences in the IPR and hopes to prevent it becoming a mega-region of war.
Charles Parton thinks the CCP total control model of the private sector cannot have the desired result; problems like debt, demographics, water scarcity and inadequate education or mismatch of skills are unlikely to sustain China as the top superpower. China uses the WTO, WHO, UNSC to project itself as the good guy, yet CCP foreign policy harbours a pervasive hostility towards the US.CCP rules disadvantage everyone else, using propaganda to big up China and to do in everyone else by controlling foreign media, stifling free speech regarding China’s expansionism and stymieing new legislation that might curb Chinese activities. Also to counter global governance by international organisations by setting up alternative initiatives (BRICS, SCO) to create a ‘Global South’ bloc aligned against Washington.
Gray Sergeant refers to 1971 when the UN expelled from UNGA representatives of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang regime. Since Beijing has ensured that Taiwan has no representation in the General Assembly or UN specialised agencies (WHO- ICAO) and the World Health Assembly. Comparing Taiwan to Switzerland Sergeant makes a case why the world’s response to Wuhan would have been better had Taiwan had a proper platform?
Andrew Cainey: UK is China’s fourth-largest trading partner, competitive pricing benefits the British economy. Cainey recommends a comprehensive audit of the benefits and risks on a sector-by-sector basis; and business relations with China demand leadership, management, and oversight across the whole-of-government at the highest levels and cannot be delegated.
Harry Halem discusses alliance management, implicating the interests of UK and European powers, the Eurasian Rimland states of Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, plus Western-oriented actors like Australia and Israel, and India that is under threat from Chinese expansion. The military elements of Chinese strategy are most apparent in Asia and the UK is at the heart of a potential Rimland counter-Chinese coalition, combined with the powers of India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, undergirded by the UK, Europeans, and US, could balance Chinese power. Halam favours a strategic partnership model that encourages European powers to take an active role in an anti-China coalition that would give the Europeans an incentive to formulate policy towards China with some legitimate stake in the game.
Beijing has weaponised PRC-controlled global supply chains, dumping its excess capacity around the world, as the pandemic demonstrated; tensions in the Taiwan Strait could have the same effect
Darren Spinck highlights. He notes Labour’s cooperation with China on Net Zero, rare earths needed for green energy tech could allow the CCP to maintain leverage over Starmer’s Government, could Mongolia and Brazil be the answer. UK concerns are rising regarding China’s strategic acquisitions in the agriculture sector. The acquisition of farmland near strategic sites is worrying, restricting PRC linked purchases in the UK’s agricultural sector, whilst diversifying away from China for rare earth elements, could be critical during a geopolitical crisis; accordingly, the quantity and the location of PRC land purchases in US/UK should be reviewed.
Lord Alton scorns China’s human rights record and UK’s tacit consent forXi’s changing political order. The rights of civil society, pro-democracy activists, legislators, journalists, have been breached; Tibet’s Buddhists, Xinjiang’s Uyghur Muslims, Chinese Christians, Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted; meanwhile Britain’s trading relationship remains unscathed. Alton is proposing a proper procurement policy for cotton, EV’s, polysilicon, plus anything in the supply chain that could be tainted by slave labour.
Andrew Chubb suggests the establishment of an independent, statutory Transnational Rights Protection Office as part of the UK’s national human rights protection institutions. Chubb explains how TNR operates and who it targets, it is not just the PRC who are active, apparently 40 states are targeting diasporas, journalists, activists, academics and lawyers.
Sam Dunning: The UFWD is a pillar of the CCP’s strategy to identify core enemies and build a coalition to defeat them. The CCP does not want foreigners to understand the UFWD and the critical role it plays in China’s interaction with the world. The 2022 Christine Lee espionage case confirms one of the most important remits of the UFWD is ‘Overseas Chinese affairs work’, the CCP view overseas Chinese people as threats and opportunities, they fear diasporic communities could become hotbeds of anti-CCP feeling or make alliances with foreign powers. UFWD work is intelligent and can be appealing to the Chinese diaspora. There is evidence that target groups include British scientists, academics, business leaders, politicians, and cultural figures that have no ancestral connection to China. The government could introduce an independent Fund for Critical China Studies, focused on knowledge about the CCP and China, that the CCP prefer inaccessible.
Robert Clark focuses on Chinese funding of universities, a 2023 report disclosed1/3 of Chinese funding for UK universities since 2017 is linked to the PLA or China’s military industrial complex.“Military-Civil Fusion” is an aggressive national strategy to establish China as the most technologically advanced military in the world. Other technologies being targeted by Beijing include AI, quantum computing, big data, semiconductors, 5G, advanced nuclear technology, and advanced aerospace technology. The CCP seeks to exploit ‘dual-use’ technologies, which have military and civilian applications, consequently CCP actively target overseas interests, by legal means, private and public investment in targeted industries, talent recruitment programmes and theft. Government could include research in export control bans and banal university funding, donations, and research collaborations with Chinese defence companies on the US Entity List; and reduce the number of fee-paying Chinese students as a proportion of overall university intake in favour of incentivising students from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Commonwealth.
Robert Seely critiques UK reticence in the field of genomics, in 2023 Five Eyes and the Intelligence and Security Committee warned China was targeting technology; if an authoritarian nation dominates any advanced technology, they can dictate research standards and norms, create new economic dependencies, and control industries. Genomics and related areas of biotechnology are an example where CCP leverages its hybrid economic system blurring private and public, civilian and military, to meet the technological goals of the state. Since Covid players have realised the commercial and military advantages of mass collection of genetic data in healthcare and bio security. The dangers of the rapid expansion of BGI and MGIare obvious, once an adversary has access to a person’s DNA, the damage is irreversible. DNA is the ultimate identifier, revealing family history, physical and mental characteristics, and susceptibility to diseases. Seely proposes a parliamentary Joint Committee Inquiry to reflect the cross-cutting nature of genomics; including how Whitehall views it, with transparency of Public and Private Healthcare associations, and life sciences companies with sensitive UK government contracts with BGI and MGI; concluding democracies needs to treat genetic data as an intrinsic part of national security.
The complete book of essays is available from CIVITAS info@civitas.org.uk