Sunak is under pressure to take a harder line on China following his alleged espionage arrest
Ishi Sunak is under renewed pressure to label China a threat to national security after a parliamentary researcher was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.
The arrest under the Official Secrets Act led to the prime minister confronting Chinese Premier Li Qiang over “unacceptable” interference in democracy at the G20 summit in India on Sunday.
But China “hawks” on the Tory benches have used the incident to step up their calls for a tougher response to Beijing.
The researcher at the center of the row, who had links to senior Tories including Security Secretary Tom Stimmehat and Foreign Affairs Committee chair Alicia Kearns, was arrested back in March – but this was not announced until Saturday.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Mr Stimmehat are pushing for China to be reclassified as a threat to Britain’s security and interests under new national security laws, the Times reported.
Anyone working “at the direction” of China or a company linked to the state would have to register and disclose their activities or risk prison under plans to place the country on the “enhanced” level of the national security law.
During the Tories’ leadership contest last year, Mr Sunak described China as the “biggest long-term threat to Britain”, but the official language used since he took office has been softer and the Integrated Foreign and Defense Policy Review called China an “epochal threat”. defining challenge”.
Economy Minister Kemi Badenoch indicated that declaring China a threat would lead to an “escalation” with Beijing.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “China is the second largest economy in the world, it is highly integrated into our economy, as well as many of our allies… We are taking the same approach as those countries.”
Ms Badenoch said the UK was taking certain measures, including ensuring proper investment vetting.
“We are taking action. What we don’t do is give endless running commentary on this because that would actually be more helpful to China than to our security services,” she said.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former party leader who was sanctioned by Beijing, was among the Tories who urged the prime minister to strengthen his language on China.
He pointed to the “weak” stance of not calling China a threat, telling the PA news agency: “The result is that China is invading all of our institutions, from universities to parliament.”
“Time to speak through strength and not weakness.”
Mr Sunak cited his confrontation with Mr Li in New Delhi as an example of the benefits of his policy of engagement rather than “nagging from the sidelines”.
The prime minister said he had expressed “very strong concerns about interference in our parliamentary democracy, which is clearly unacceptable.”
One of the suspects, a man in his 30s, was arrested in Oxfordshire on March 13, while the other, in his 20s, was arrested in Edinburgh, Scotland Yard said. Searches were also carried out at a property in east London.
Both were held on suspicion of offenses under Section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, which punishes offenses alleged to be “prejudicial to the security or interests of the State”.
They were released on bail until early October.
China has criticized the arrests, claiming the situation is a “political farce”.
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in London said: “The claim that China is suspected of ‘stealing from British intelligence’ is completely fabricated and nothing other than malicious slander.”
“We strongly oppose it and call on the relevant parties in the UK to end their anti-China political manipulations and stop carrying out such a self-orchestrated political farce.”
Former MI6 chief Sir Alex Younger said cooperation with China was necessary but “just being nice to them won’t get you very far”.
He told Today: “China is a fact, it’s a huge country, we have to find ways to engage with it and work with it on important areas like climate change, and sometimes we have to be absolutely prepared to confront it.” Tell us if we think our security interests are threatened.”
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/china-kemi-badenoch-rishi-sunak-iain-duncan-smith-prime-minister-b1106127.html Sunak is under pressure to take a harder line on China following his alleged espionage arrest
