CRG weekly: Integrated Review, MPs push government on Xinjiang and Alaska showdown
News from the CRG
Next event: Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will be hosting a discussion at the China Research Group on China’s economic rise on Thursday 15th April at 5:30pm. Sign up here.
In the press: The CRG’s response to the IR was covered in The Telegraph, i news, The Independent and more, including YouGov. CRG Chair Tom Tugendhat’s op-ed was in The Times on the need for the UK to back up its strategic ambition with adequate funding.
The week in review
On Tuesday, the UK government published its long-awaited Integrated Review. On close inspection, the 114-page document contains the building blocks of a values-based China strategy. The CRG welcomed the IR’s recognition of the challenge that China poses for the UK’s democratic values, and the newfound emphasis on the role that technology will play in geopolitics. Given the IR identifies China as the UK’s ‘biggest state-based threat to economic security’; the question now is how the UK navigates a trading relationship with China while also protecting its national security and values.
Response from the UK China-watching community broadly welcomed a concerted attempt to set strategic ambition for the UK’s foreign policy, with criticism focusing on a lack of coherence and consistency by which to implement its framework. A handful of China hawks were left unsatisfied, exemplified by Tobias Ellwood’s insistence that it fell ‘hugely short’. But the vast majority of MPs on Tuesday found little to overtly criticise in the document itself.
Notably, three key former government figures gave evidence this week to the Lords International Relations and Defence Committee on the UK’s relationship with China. George Osborne, Chancellor during the ‘Golden Era’, told the committee that Boris Johnson should be congratulated for seeing off the ‘hotheads’ and praised the policy of ‘co-opt rather than confront’ - which he paralleled to the approach taken under the Cameron government. Simon McDonald, former head of the Foreign Office, suggested that the Foreign Office and Cabinet Office are battling for control of the UK’s China policy. Mark Sedwill, former Cabinet Secretary, pointed out what often goes unsaid “there are many countries in the world with appalling human rights records with which we have had an economic relationship over many decades, and that has been a traditional position of the UK.”
The Chinese response to the IR was mixed. Yang Xiaoguang, a minister at the Chinese embassy in the UK, responded to the IR on Sky News, commenting that China was neither a ‘threat’ nor a ‘competitor’, but instead a partner for cooperation. He highlighted COVID-19, the environment and energy security as areas for such collaboration. Yang also reaffirmed China’s commitment against nuclear weapons and warned other countries against detrimental involvement in the Asia Pacific region. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian delivered much the same message in Beijing, adding that London should focus on the opportunities of bilateral cooperation.
Such cooperative words were in short supply on Thursday’s showdown in Alaska, where Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi convened for the first high-level meeting between the US and China under the Biden administration. Talks opened on a confrontational note. Blinken laid out Washington’s "deep concerns" over China, while Yang spoke for over 15 minutes on the US’s ‘Cold War mentality’ and overreach into China’s affairs. The US had sanctioned 24 Chinese officials and issued subpoenas to three Chinese telecoms companies in the build-up to what Blinken called ‘not the beginning of a dialogue process.’
While the portion of the meeting behind closed doors may have been more productive, it is clear that a reset in US-China relations is unlikely. As our most recent paper on the Belt and Road concludes, the UK should expect to come under further pressure on China from Washington as an era of strategic competition unfolds - particularly given the Integrated Review reaffirms the US our ‘most important strategic ally and partner’.
In brief
The Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee delivered its ‘Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang and UK value chains’ report, recommending the government takes a tougher approach on reducing UK businesses’ complicity in forced labour. The genocide amendment returns to the Commons on Monday.
Ministers have raised concerns with the Chinese embassy over harassment of Uyghurs in Britain and efforts to ‘intimidate them into silence.’ Rahima Mahmut, a prominent Uyghur refugee, commented that she still does not feel safe from the reach of the Chinese state.
UK intelligence agencies are seeking to limit the use of Chinese ‘smart city’ technology as local councils upgrade infrastructure technology. Concerns were cited over potential uses of the technology for espionage, data collection and surveillance. Hikvision and Huawei are the key suppliers mentioned.
Tower Hamlets council has approved a motion to rename the streets in the vicinity of the new Chinese embassy with names designed to ‘call out the CCP’s human rights violations.’ Tiananmen Square, Tibet Hill and Uyghur Court are among the proposed names.
The EU agreed its first round of sanctions on China since 1989. The measures will target four individuals for human rights violations in a week where hopes for an EU visit to Xinjiang appear to have broken down. Beijing has threatened countermeasures.
More regulatory pressure on China’s tech giants as the WSJ reported Beijing has asked Alibaba to dispose of its media assets, including stakes in Weibo and SCMP, in response to fears about its influence on public opinion.
A declassified US National Intelligence Council report on ‘Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections’ found that China ‘did not deploy interference efforts.’ The report added that China ‘did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling.’
Weekend reads
Two of the most interesting responses to the Integrated Review were a Politico editorial on Japan as the key partner and ally for an effective Global Britain agenda in Asia and James Crabtree’s balanced take on why the critics may be proved wrong in Foreign Policy.
How to deal with China: The Economist delves into how democratic countries can uphold liberty and engage China in the face of its dismantling of the democracy in Hong Kong.
Five myths on American debates about China by Evan Medeiros and Jude Blanchette in War on the Rocks travels just as well to the need for nuance in the UK’s China debate.
Does China need Britain? Jeevan Vasagar argues in The Guardian that Britain’s cultural capital complicates notions of a one-way dependence system.
A tech marathon, not an arms race: the director of the Pentagon’s Defence Innovation Unit, Michael Brown, in a Q&A with Politico, touches on Chinese foreign investment in the context of the ‘tech race.’