UK response to Chinese intelligence threat ‘completely inadequate’, says report

Successive governments have failed to grasp and respond to the scale of the threat posed by China, Parliament’s spy agency watchdog said, as it warned that Chinese intelligence targets the UK “prolifically and aggressively”.

A new and wide-ranging report by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is critical of the UK Government’s response to the threat posed by China, questioning the trade-off between economic interest and security concerns.

MPs said the 200-page report should be a “wake-up” call for ministers, as the ISC warned that Chinese targeting of industry and technology could pose an “existential threat to liberal democratic systems”.

It said: “China’s state intelligence apparatus – almost certainly the largest in the world with hundreds of thousands of civil intelligence officers… targets the UK and its interests prolifically and aggressively, and presents a challenge for our agencies to cover.”

The nine-member committee, chaired by Conservative MP Sir Julian Lewis, scrutinises the work of the UK’s intelligence agencies including MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.

Its reports are seen by the Prime Minister before release, with the latest report coming amid ongoing tensions between the West and the rising Asian power.

The ISC report said the UK’s resources are “completely inadequate” when it came to tackling what committee members labelled China’s “whole-of-state” approach to espionage and interference overseas.

It warned of a danger of short-term thinking and a lack of long-term planning to counter the threat posed by China.

“The UK is now playing catch-up and the whole of Government has its work cut out to understand and counter the threat from China,” the report said.

“The UK is severely handicapped by the short-termist approach currently being taken.”

It is not the first time that anxiety has been expressed about Chinese control in higher education.

Rishi Sunak promised in last year’s Tory leadership race to shut down the 30 Chinese state-sponsored Confucius Institutes across the UK, before back-tracking once in office.

The report said British “academic institutions provide a rich feeding ground for China to achieve political influence in the UK and economic advantage over the UK”.

It added: “In order to control the narrative of debate, China exerts influence over institutions by leveraging fees and funding, over individual UK academics through inducements and intimidation, over Chinese students by monitoring and controlling, and over think tanks through coercion.”

But MPs said the Government has shown “very little interest” in warnings from academics about the matter.

China General Nuclear last year dropped out of the Sizewell C nuclear power plant project in Suffolk but MPs said serious questions remain for ministers about future projects.

“The Government would be naive to assume that allowing Chinese companies to exert influence over the UK’s civil nuclear and energy sectors is not ceding control to the Chinese Communist Party,” the report said.

“It is therefore unacceptable for the Government still to be considering Chinese involvement in the UK’s critical national infrastructure at a granular level.

“We have serious concerns about the incentive and opportunity for espionage that Chinese involvement in the UK’s civil nuclear sector provides. While we recognise that the threat of disruption is less likely, the threat of leverage is very real.”

The Government is required to respond to the report, with a copy of the document laid before Parliament on Thursday.

In June, the ISC said it was “seeking answers” about a delay in gaining Downing Street approval of the report.

The Prime Minister also said the ISC probe began in 2019 and took most evidence in 2020 “pre-dating both the Integrated Review 2021 and the Integrated Review Refresh 2023″.

“These are both comprehensive national security and international policy reviews that considerably strengthen our position on China,” he said.

“The Government has already taken actions that are in line with many of the committee’s recommendations.”

But committee members hit back at the statement, with Labour’s Kevan Jones labelling it “weak” and criticising the Prime Minister for failing to share it first with the ISC.

“If that is the response from Government, that somehow the report’s out of date, I would come up with better arguments than that.”

“That does not mean to say that we are not continually in dialogue and receiving quarterly reports, for example, from all the intelligence agencies that cover all these matters.”

Elsewhere in the report, MPs urged ministers to go further with national security legislation and enact a counter-state threats Bill.

The ISC also called for the Cabinet Office to carry out a review into whether intelligence agencies are meeting targets on tackling the challenge faced from China.

“I think the most shocking thing is was this known 10 years ago? Yes,” Mr Jones said.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat, speaking to broadcasters, said: “This Government has taken state threats and indeed the challenge of China more seriously than any of its predecessors. It is quite clear that the Prime Minister takes it seriously.”

Asked about committee concerns about the nuclear energy sector, he said: “Many of these different decisions have been taken over many years. What is quite noticeable is the change we’ve seen under this administration. Prime Minister Sunak has made a very clear decision, very early on, to put national security first.”

It came as Energy Secretary Grant Shapps likened Beijing to the British Empire, saying it wanted to operate “under their world order”.

Speaking at a press gallery lunch in Parliament, he echoed Foreign Secretary James Cleverly’s cautious tone on China, but said: “I have a really clear-eyed view about China.

“First of all, they are a reality, we cannot kind of wish things away.

“They do want to change the world, to operate under their world order.

“That is no surprise, we did that when we had an empire, the Americans have done that, the Dutch did it before us.

“That’s the way large economies and empires operate.”