PM hits back at calls for tougher action on China

The UK’s approach to China is “more robust” than most of its allies, the prime minister has insisted following demands for a tougher line on Beijing.

At one of his regular grillings by select committee chairs, Rishi Sunak was challenged on Number 10’s reluctance to act on a number of Chineseowned companies such as Bytedance, which owns TikTok.

Mr Sunak rejected the suggestion from Liam Byrne, Labour MP and chairman of the Commons business and trade committee, that while other nations acted to protect themselves against China, the UK was merely “thinking about it”.

He told the Commons liaison committee: “Our approach to China is undoubtedly more robust than, I’d say, most of our allies.”

He pointed to European countries not removing Huawei equipment from their telecoms networks and not placing similar restrictions on exports of sensitive technology to China and said the UK’s foreign investment regime was the most recently implemented and therefore the most robust.

He added: “I am entirely confident that our approach to dealing with the risk that China poses is very much in line with our allies and in most cases goes further in protecting ourselves.”

Mr Byrne replied: “It clearly doesn’t.”

The prime minister’s defence of the UK’s China policy comes after the government blamed Beijing for “malicious” cyber attacks on parliamentarians and on the Electoral Commission, sanctioning some of those involved.

Tory MPs, however, criticised the government’s actions, saying it had not gone far enough, while others renewed their calls for China to be labelled a “threat”.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan told Times Radio yesterday that China was “obviously a security threat”, but Downing Street has been keen to play down the possibility that the government could change its stance on the country, which it currently calls as an “epoch-defining challenge”.

The prime minister’s spokesman said: “There isn’t a mechanism under UK law or indeed in our G7 or Five Eyes countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US and UK) that has a designation process like that.”

The charge d’affaires at the Chinese embassy yesterday attended the Foreign Office after a summons to account for his country’s actions. The Foreign Office said it set out “unequivocal condemnation” of “malicious cyber activity” by organisations affiliated to Beijing, saying it “would not tolerate such threatening activity, and would continue to take strong action with partners across the globe to respond”.

The attribution of the cyber attacks to the APT31 hacking group, believed to be under the control of the

Chinese ministry of state security, was part of a coordinated effort with the UK’s allies, including the US and New Zealand.

US authorities announced sanctions against the front company and individuals, and also charged seven individuals with fraud offences.

New Zealand alleged hackers linked to the Chinese government launched a state-sponsored operation that targeted the country’s parliament in 2021 but said it lacked the legal powers to impose sanctions.

The Chinese government has strongly denied that it has carried out, supported or encouraged cyber attacks on the UK, describing the claims as “completely fabricated and malicious slanders”.