Cut economic reliance on China, urges Labour
BRITAIN must cut its economic reliance on China after the “wake-up call” from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the shadow chancellor has warned.
Rachel Reeves said measures need to be put in place to protect national security and intellectual property after the country developed a “really worrying” dependence on China. “We are overly reliant on countries that don’t share our values for our basic needs and, as with Russia, you can find that things can be turned off,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “We must also make sure that there are provisions in place in a way that there haven’t been to protect our national security and also to protect our intellectual property.”
Ms Reeves drew parallels between Britain’s reliance on China and its dependence on energy from Russia, saying Covid and the war in Ukraine were a “wake-up call that we’ve got to become more resilient as an economy”.
She said: “The reason why Russia seeks to put the West over a barrel is because we’re so reliant on imported gas and oil. It’s the same with the Middle East and same with China.” She insisted it “doesn’t mean cutting off all links” with China, but the “first thing we’ve got to do is protect our national security”.
It marks a further hardening of Labour’s rhetoric on Beijing. Gordon Brown’s administration sought to boost economic ties with China but the party has taken a tougher stance in recent years. Rishi Sunak had been accused of trying to foster closer economic ties when he was chancellor.
However, he declared last month that the golden era of Uk-china relations had ended amid pressure from hawkish Conservative backbenchers.
He said that it is a “naïve idea” that trade between China and the West would “automatically lead to social and political reform” in the country.
Ms Reeves was speaking at an event in Canary Wharf where she and Sir Keir Starmer carried out a charm offensive on business chiefs. They also ruled out any windfall tax on bank profits, which are being boosted by higher interest rates.