West must stand united in the face of malign forces
YESTERDAY the House of Commons voted unanimously to declare that China is guilty of carrying out crimes against humanity and genocide, over its treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang province. China has already sanctioned a number of MPs who have campaigned on this and it is good that the Commons as a whole has stood behind them.
China is a totalitarian state in which dissent is crushed ruthlessly, as we are seeing in Hong Kong, and in which genocide is pursued brazenly.And it poses a direct threat to our way of life.
But it is far from the only threat. Today we face any number of dangers, from Islamist extremism and state-sponsored Iranian terror to a Russian state which poses the most immediate menace to our safety. And that’s without even considering the likes of North Korea.
Earlier this week it emerged that the Government intends to introduce a bill to counter espionage and underhand action by hostile states such as Russia and China. Anyone working on behalf of a foreign government in Britain would have to register their work here or face criminal charges. And the Official Secrets Act will be updated to deal with people who work to undermine our safety, such as cyberhackers working for foreign states.
THE USSR may no longer exist butVladimir Putin’s Russia is one of the most malign forces in the modern world. The Soviet Union was, as Ronald Reagan called it, an “evil empire” – exporting communism by force was in its DNA. Russia today is different but no less dangerous. It is more of a gangster state, which uses its military strength and an army of agents to undermine us.
According to Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6, we only know about 10 per cent of Russia’s aggressive intelligence activities. We all remember the Salisbury poisonings in 2018, but the threat is far greater than isolated assassinations, and on a much wider scale. Much socalled fake news is Russian in origin, circulated on social media by bots – computer generated accounts designed to look like real people.
Investigations into the origin of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, for example, show reams of posts emanating from socalled troll factories in Russia. And there is no doubt that Russia has tried to influence the political process here, such as by pushing Scottish independence through its agents as a way of destabilising Westminster.
Not that it is always underhand: it is prepared to be blatant and use military force, invading part of Ukraine in 2014 and having built up its troops on the border.
This week the Czech government expelled 18 Russian diplomats it says are spies after investigating an explosion at an ammunition depot in 2014. The Czech authorities say it was carried out by the same two men who were responsible for the Salisbury poisoning.
But the Russian economy is a basket case and, for all the immediate threat posed by Russia, the greatest long-term danger is from China – far wealthier and far more unrelenting in its expansion.
Under leader Xi Jinping’s “Belt and Road” programme, China is investing in nearly 70 countries and organisations. For too long, this was viewed credulously as some kind of economic boon. Some realism has entered the discussion and it is starting to be seen for what it is: a plan by China to make other nations dependent on it economically, and an attempt to gain back door control.
Take communications company, Huawei. It was originally
going to form a key part of our 5G network. But last year, a reassessment by the National Cyber Security Centre of the threat the company poses to our security led to a ban on the company’s involvement.
China has already established many deep footholds in the UK, not least in universities, many of which have grabbed its cash without thinking through the consequences.
IN FEBRUARY it was reported that some 200 academics from a dozen universities are being investigated over their possible, albeit unintentional, help to the Chinese government in building weapons of mass destruction through commercial deals over research struck between universities and Chinese companies.
Despite the reality of China’s intentions being clear, the West is split in its response. Germany is craven in its dealings with China and New Zealand is actively seeking more Chinese involvement in its affairs.
If we do not stand together, we may well fall apart. The free world has seen off ruthless enemies before so we know we can. But that, unfortunately, is no guarantee that we will.
‘China has already established many deep footholds in the UK’