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

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A bus passes the Palace of Westminster in London, England, home to the two houses of British parliament. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:10am, 14 Jul 2023Updated: 4:35am, 14 Jul 2023

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.