In today's Britain, Chinese agents are everywhere
The Chinese Communist Party has infiltrated the British Royal Family. There is mounting evidence that suspected Chinese spy Yang Tengbo helped disgraced Prince Andrew develop his start-up Innovate Global.
These allegations will likely seal Prince Andrew's fall from grace. They should also inspire a re-evaluation of Britain's commercial links with China. In 2024, Britain's trade with China reached £89 billion and China invested £4.2 billion in the British economy. These investments have provided China with a wide-ranging footprint in Britain's strategic industries and the educational institutions that power their development.
While Britain's restrictions on semiconductor exports to China and forced sale of Future Technology Devices International Holding's 80.2 per cent stake in a key Scottish chipmaker grabbed headlines, they are half-measures at best. From 2014-24, China made seven per cent of the greenfield investments in Britain's chip sector and Chinese investors hold equity stakes in 36 of the 61 major British semiconductor firms. Despite tighter enforcement of Britain's national security legislation, China's investments in this vital strategic industry progressed under Whitehall and Westminster's noses.
Turning to the artificial intelligence (AI) and renewable energy sectors, a similar picture emerges. Chinese technology giant Tencent has rewarded British universities for their cooperation with China and underwritten six-figure grants at prestigious British institutions to advance AI research. While collaboration between Britain and China on the regulation of AI is potentially beneficial, the climate for technology sharing is far too permissive. Before they were blacklisted by the US in 2023, China's primary AI chip designers Moore Threads and Biren Technology secured extensive licences with Britain's AI crown jewel Imagination Technologies, whose China-backed owners have now put the company up for sale. This would put an end to a tumultuous period for Imagination Technologies following its takeover by Canyon Bridge. The private equity firm, which is funded by the state-owned investment group China Reform, took the company off the London Stock Exchange in 2017.
The Government stepped in to avert a board takeover by China Reform in 2020 that was labelled a 'coup'. An employment tribunal recently ruled that Imagination had unfairly sacked Ron Black as its chief executive for blowing the whistle on plans to move the company to China.
China's impending issuance of a sovereign green bond in London reflects its broader infiltration of Britain's renewable energy development. Chinese businesses have funded or provided parts for at least 14 of Britain's 50 operational wind farm projects. Up to 40 per cent of Britain's solar panels are reportedly produced by Chinese companies including some that have faced claims that they use Uyghur forced labour. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves's courtship of Chinese assistance in fulfilling the Labour government's net-zero pledge will only make this infiltration more severe.
Even if US pressure and pushback from the British intelligence community leads to an easing of Britain's strategic industry integration with China, the Labour government still has much more to do against the spiralling threat of Chinese espionage. In October 2023, MI5 Director Ken McCallum warned that China was conducting espionage in Britain on a 'pretty epic scale' and estimated that 20,000 British nationals had been targeted by Chinese spies online. China's state-affiliated Advanced Persistent Threat Group 3, which carried out reconnaissance campaigns against British Members of Parliament in 2021, suggests that the CCP is blending cyberwarfare with espionage to devastating effect.
Instead of aggressively combating this threat, Britain's Labour government has delayed the implementation of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) that punishes Chinese espionage. When FIRS finally takes effect, Chinese spies will be exempted from the toughest penalties that the legislation mandates. This trivialization of the Chinese espionage threat sends the worst possible signal to the CCP's arsenal of spies and saboteurs.
Prince Andrew's humiliating brush with Chinese espionage has raised the profile of a security threat that has remained under the radar for far too long. Now is the time for Britain to seriously combat the threat posed by China's infiltration of its prized technologies, educational institutions and political system.
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