Bullies of Beijing

THAT China is spying on Britain is hardly the revelation of the century. States have conducted the tradecraft of espionage against each other since time immemorial.

What is most worrying, however, is the major escalation in the Communist regime’s deployment of cloak-and-dagger activities against this country. Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden took the unusual step of publicly blaming China for a string of ‘malicious’ cyber attacks.

One involved the hacking of Electoral Commission files which held the personal details of up to 40million British voters.

Mr Dowden said the regime had also brazenly targeted 43 British politicians who had criticised its appalling human rights record and malign intent.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insists that the Government has its ‘eyes wide open’ when it comes to the danger posed by Beijing. But can we be so sure?

Only last year, a damning report laid bare how our leaders have been depressingly relaxed about China successfully infiltrating every sector of our economy.

Our universities have become dependent on high-paying Chinese students. Graduates with links to China’s military have been given placements in British defence and aerospace firms. And ‘honey trap’ spies are influencing political figures.

The concern, too, is that the UK is so economically exposed to China, we are unable to assertively push back. This dates back to David Cameron’s so-called ‘golden era’ of UK-China relations – naively allowing it to be a major part of our mobile phone and internet infrastructure.

China has the second largest economy in the world, so it would be foolish to imperil trade. Even so, Mr Sunak can no longer appease the bullies of Beijing.