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of why China does matter
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It seems to me, having sat through lots of briefings with government officials in the past 10 days or so on this issue
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that the UK has been trying to have its cake and eat it with our policy towards China
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We want to trade with them, get their support in building wind farms
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and the like and buying stakes in national infrastructure, Heathrow Airport, 10%, a chunk of a nuclear power station
0:24
under construction. But equally, we're concerned about this activity by the Chinese state
0:29
against our own institutions here, and how do we play that? Today's briefing, the lobby briefing I was at
0:36
the Deputy National Security Advisor's evidence was questioned. There were three witness statements published overnight by the government
0:45
In there, it was surprising to see Labour policy cut and paste into two of the latter two after the election
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It seems, it looks like the CPS were trying to prove after the event
1:01
after the governments had changed, that we viewed, we as a country viewed China as an enemy
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in order to make the prosecution stand against those two men who accused of spying who denied all wrongdoing
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But that was after the event. And there we're seeing on screen there Christopher Berry and Christopher Cash
1:19
And that's the point. We were trying to prove after the event the status of China as an enemy
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when in truth both the Tory and Labour governments have been very careful not to say they're enemies
1:31
and I think that why Ken McCollum now is praising and supporting this new legislation passed in 2023 which should make future prosecutions more likely to stick But of course this is all focusing in on the mess that this government doesn quite
1:48
seem to have a very clear answer on. I mean, a lot of people look at this China story and
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just look at all the different angles and all the sort of elements of it and think this
1:56
is an incredibly confusing story. But at the core of it, this is the government that failed
2:02
to put forward evidence to prosecute two alleged spies. Ultimately, the government still has a huge number of questions
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to answer, given how weirdly obvious it is to everyone else that China is a threat, how obvious it is to the head of MI5
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that China is a threat, how obvious it is to opposition politicians who point to their own statements that China was a threat
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when they were in government. And yet the government can't bring itself to say China is a threat
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Well, Tom, and that goes to the absolute heart of it. So my first question at the lobby briefing today with the PM's deputy official spokesman was a simple one
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Is China a friend or foe? Is it an enemy or not an enemy
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And they couldn't answer that question. They said it's unhelpful to use a single word, friend or foe, to describe China
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They said that it's a threat to economic prosperity and the biggest state-based threat to economic security
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But they won't say friend or foe. they won't say a hostile state, they won't say the language required under the legislation with
3:04
which these two individuals were charged for spying. And because of that, the case fell
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And that's where I think we are. For too long, the UK government has tried, as I say, to have
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its cake and eat it. It's about China, to treat them both as an enemy and both as an economic
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partner. And at some point, they've got to choose
