Staff at firms with Beijing links could go on security list
THOUSANDS of workers at Chinese firms and organisations in Britain could be forced to register with the security services under a clampdown being considered by ministers. Whitehall sources last night told the Mail that ministers are close to agreement on a move to put China on the ‘enhanced tier’ of countries deemed a threat to the UK.
The move is a key demand of critics who say the Government has been too slow to wake up to the threat posed by China’s increasingly assertive communist regime.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden hinted at the plan yesterday, as he criticised China’s ‘unacceptable’ attempts to undermine Britain’s democracy.
He told MPs: ‘We are currently in the process of collective Government agreement in relation to the enhanced tier of the foreign interfer ence registration scheme. Clearly, the conduct that I have described today will have a very strong bearing on the decision that we make in respect of it.’
The National Security Act 2023 came into force in December after being passed by Parliament last summer. It updated espionage laws by creating several new offences aimed at making it easier to detect and disrupt potential foreign threats operating on home soil.
It set up a Foreign Influence Registration Scheme designed to create a clearer picture about which individuals or entities may be a risk to Britain’s interests. It has two tiers, including a ‘political influence tier’ and ‘enhanced tier’.
The former requires individuals or entities who ‘carry out political influence activities in the UK at the direction of a foreign power’ to identify themselves.
The latter gives ministers the power to force people or entities to identify themselves for a broader range of activities, such as working in Britain at the direction of a foreign power. If they fail to identify themselves they could face up to five years in jail.
Placing Beijing on the enhanced list could result in anyone working in Britain ‘at the direction’ of Beijing having to identify themselves. This could potentially cover thousands employed by Chinese companies and organisations in the UK.
Last night it was unclear whether the law would cover firms such as TikTok, which deny they are controlled by Beijing. But Mr Dowden noted that ministers have already banned the use of the social media app on government devices as part of efforts to ‘reduce the Government’s exposure to Chinese operators’.
Designating China on the enhanced list will be viewed as a hostile act in Beijing and has been resisted by the Treasury, which remains keen to attract Chinese investment.
But MPs lined up yesterday to urge the Government to act. Former home secretary Suella Braverman said the legislation was ‘designed specifically to deal with such threats so that our authorities have the right powers to tackle them’. She told Mr Dowden: ‘Is there not a compelling case for China to be listed on that register, and if not now, when?’
Tim Loughton, one of a number of MPs sanctioned by Beijing, said the designation would be a ‘proportionate’ response to the ‘intimidation, impersonation and hacking’ carried out by China against MPs and dissidents who have criticised the communist regime.
Mr Dowden insisted that the Government had toughened its stance significantly in recent years, including by removing Huawei from the UK’s 5G infrastructure, banning Chinese investment in nuclear power stations and blocking the takeover of technology firms by Chinese companies.
He said ministers did not believe it was right for the UK to cut itself off from China altogether, adding that its relationship with the UK ‘depends on the choices China makes’. But he acknowledged relations had deteriorated sharply since the so-called ‘golden era’ pioneered by David Cameron a decade ago.