SNP MP targeted by Chinese spies warns Scot Gov puts nation at risk with over-reliance on Beijing
A PROMINENT SNP MP targeted by Chinese intelligence has launched a blistering critique of the Scottish Government’s policy towards Beijing.
Chinese spies tried to hack Stewart McDonald, the party’s former defence spokesman, along with other unnamed Scottish MPs, including another SNP MP. The attack was unsuccessful as it was “intercepted”.
McDonald was previously hacked by Russian intelligence last year. He is a fierce critic of both the Kremlin and Chinese Communist Party.
He says he was targeted because China “doesn’t like what I’m talking about, especially in the context of Scotland and our economic overdependence on China, and the need to wean ourselves off that dependence with a proper, robust, long-term strategy”.
If China invades Taiwan or launches maritime or economic blockades, the result would be “reciprocal sanctions” between China and the West, which would damage Scotland.
Scottish goods like whisky and salmon would be hit. Scotland is at risk due to over-reliance on China when it comes to “energy, exports and education”.
Scottish universities also over rely on Chinese students. The cash effectively props up universities and maintains the SNP’s free tuition policy, McDonald says.
“We’ve got universities where the percentage of international income from one source – China – is far too high,” he explained. “In Glasgow University, it’s about 40%.”
In the event of war, McDonald said: “Imagine if suddenly all that
Chinese money flowing into our universities is turned off, all those students recalled, no new students permitted to come and study. That’s a massive problem. It’s the single biggest threat to my party’s free tuition policy.”
Scotland heavily depends on Chinese goods for the green transition. It has just emerged that China’s largest wind-turbine manufacturer, Mingyang Smart Energy, intends establishing its first European base in Scotland, supplying North Sea windfarms. McDonald called the move “incredible” and “short-termism posing as strategy”.
Norway has “excluded the same company”, he said. As the EU has just launched anti-trust investigations into Chinese windturbine manufacturers, the move “sends all the wrong signals to our European partners”.
The Scottish Government “promoted the company to the priority tier in their strategic investment model, just weeks after we learn of a Chinese hack … Talk about sending the wrong message”. He added: “There’s no strategy anywhere to be found.”
He warned Scotland not to view the Chinese threat as an issue about “faraway foreign policy. It’s domestic. It’s a threat to energy security, data security. It’s a technological threat. We must be one step ahead to protect citizens”.
McDonald claimed that Chinese consulates are used for “transnational repression” – monitoring and threatening dissidents and intimidating their families in China.
He said “in Scotland, we’ve had Hong Kong students” protesting what’s happening in their homeland being “spied on, their photographs taken and information sent back to Chinese police. Their families are visited by police and harassed to get the student in Scotland to shut up”.
McDonald added: “The Edinburgh Consulate isn’t just issuing visas and passports.” McDonald knows pro-democracy campaigners in Britain who have been “attacked and beaten up”.
Scotland needs a policy of “de-risking” when it comes to China. “The frustration is that Scotland feels it can sit this out, that it’s too difficult. There’s an element in Edinburgh where people think ‘if we do too much, it might end up causing us more trouble’.
“Too often the Scottish Government and MSPs in general don’t think in terms of national security. They think it’s for Whitehall.”
McDonald says he “hates the term ‘backdoor’, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are very much softer entry-points into Britain. China wants to create dependencies and knows [the devolved nations] are easier routes to pursue its goals”.