Cabinet China row needs to be resolved in weeks

The Prime Minister has weeks to resolve Cabinet differences over whether to impose tighter restrictions on organisations in the UK with links to China, i understands.

Rishi Sunak and his ministers are weighing up whether to place China on the “enhanced” tier of a new foreign influence registration scheme (Firs), under which entities linked with the country would be subjected to more stringent controls over their UK operations.

On Monday, the Deputy Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden, said there was a “strong case” for Chinese-affiliated groups to be subject to stricter controls, after revealing “malicious” cyber attacks linked to Beijing.

But he hinted at Cabinet tensions by saying there was “no collective agreement” on what action to take.

It has been reported that the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and the Business Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, are resistant to the move for fears it could damage the economy and investment, while Mr Dowden and the Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat, are pushing for tougher action.

Separately, a Foreign Office source said they “do not recognise” claims that the department was resisting the tougher controls.

The Home Office must bring regulations to Parliament in May in order to meet a deadline for the Firs to become active from October, i understands.

Putting China on the Firs enhanced tier of countries would mean that anyone working in the UK “at the direction” of Beijing would need to register or face five years in jail, potentially affecting thousands of employees of Chinese firms.

The Prime Minister insisted that the UK was “more robust” than most of its allies on China amid calls for tougher action.

He rejected the suggestion from Liam Byrne, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons Business and Trade Committee, that while other nations acted to protect themselves against China, the UK was merely “thinking about it”.

Mr Sunak told the Commons Liaison Committee: “Our approach to China is undoubtedly more robust than, I’d say, most of our allies.”

Yesterday, the Conservative MP Bob Seely was among those calling for tougher action, including restrictions on the social media company TikTok. He said: “We don’t want the information [shared on TikTok] going back to China because of big data and AI being able to crunch this data and understand how to manipulate people in the future.

“The more dictatorships can know how to mould and manipulate people, the more that dictatorships can survive. That is bad for humanity.”