'Chinese intelligence operations have totally penetrated' key UK industries | Ian Williams

now there are multiple examples in here ranging from Academia to to Industry to technology sectors where Chinese intelligence and influence operations have totally penetrated these organizations these institutions and were the UK response has been almost non-existent at one point the report says it wonders whether the UK was even looking uh it is really an incredible indictment of the lack of of any policy and I think they put they're particularly scary thing about UK Academia which has been running after Chinese tie-ups uh Chinese fees um China all sorts of of money with no questions asked and in the process effectively handing over extremely sensitive technology in Rishi sinag said taking measures to prevent interference by reducing Britain's Reliance on Chinese technology but he wanted to have open and constructive relations with China but are we in a world where we can actually have those open and constructive relations it's very difficult the government wants to have it every which way they talk about being robust with China but they also talk about engaging with China particularly on issue issues of shared concern like climate change but also where it comes to trade and investment but the problem with that approach is that China hasn't hesitated to leverage trade investment Market access as means of coercion so that in trying to have it each way the polit every way the policy that emerges is a extremely incoherent it's intriguing some of the the quotes actually from this report the nature of China's engagement influence and interference activity may be difficult to detect it says so how active do you think that Chinese agents in the UK are actually are at the moment in tracking people who attack the regime in Beijing they are extremely active and they are doing it in every and and imaginable way we think about conventional Espionage of the spies um from Espionage novels but Chinese way of Espionage the Communist Party way of Espionage has been characterized by the committee as whole of state it involves many many different aspects formal and informal it involves companies state-owned companies private companies it involves researchers it involves um students these are people who are co-opted by the Communist party at times they have no real choice in that matter because Chinese law obliges these organizations to cooperate on National Security and this is why they Define it as a as a whole of state assault on the UK because it is many many multiple it has multiple facets to it and which is why in a sense the UK has not even begun to grasp the scale of the challenge it's facing yeah and I suppose Ian it's also important to point out that the report highlights that this is successive UK governments not just that the present government um one part of the report really highlights the UK's energy sector and says that it is possible to imagine that we are seeding control to the Chinese Communist party what control do the Chinese have over British energy I think they have they have been quite substantial investors in a number of different sectors but one of the sectors which the report does highlight is of course the nuclear industry um in the the Heyday of George Osborne and David Cameron's attempt to make Britain China's best friend in the west of course China was invited to take a stake in the British nuclear industry and indeed to build its own nuclear power station which is mind-boggling when you when you think about it in terms of what has come out since then um the government has been struggling since those agreements were signed in 2015 to extract China from those sectors but has not yet completely done that um and the thought that you can invite the Communist Party of China into such a sensitive part of British infrastructure is is quite remarkable and I think the committee is pretty incredulous when they when they examine this but you are right they criticize a succession of British governments for failing to have a coherent policy and the current government would argue that they are becoming more robust that they have in place a number of measures on to scrutinize investment more closely to advise universities more closely about tie-ups and the money that they accept but a lot of this is still untried a lot of it is rather incoherent and sits rather uncomfortably with James cleverly the foreign secretary's desire for greater engagement with with China in an absolute Insight a great Insight speaking to you this morning thanks so much for your time that's Ian Williams the China expert and author of fire of the Dragon China's new Cold War

Channel: Times Radio

Views: 25,574

Keywords: timesradio, china, spies, china news, us china, china us, chinese spies, foreign spies china, china spy balloon, china us relations, china spying, industry, taiwan china, china taiwan, south china morning post, china's cyber spies, us china relations, china spy in us, documentary spies, china espionage, indo china, communist party of china, china economy, greater china, china espionage in canada, china india dispute, china in focus, china espionage news, india vs china

Id: yc3-_KOMZB8

Length: 6min 9sec (369 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 14 2023