14 h. ago MingYang: Government ministers warned against 'handing over' energy grid to Chinese Communist Party

It comes after GCHQ warned that China has the potential to shut down the national grid in a cyber security attack

Politics

48 h. ago ‘You’re in spy territory’: how two UK nationals got tangled in a Chinese espionage row

The Met’s elite SO15 unit alleged a parliamentary researcher helped his friend create 34 reports for a shadowy frontFor Christopher Cash it was а job he adored. The young parliamentary researcher, then in his late 20s, was a China specialist working successively for two influential backbenchers, Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns. He had a parliamentary pass and was plugged into Westminster’s gossip network during 2022, a year of Conservative turmoil in Westminster, three prime ministers and future policy uncertainty.At the same time, Cash was in close contact with a friend, Christopher Berry, a teacher based in Hangzhou, eastern China, where the Britons had first met five years earlier. They discussed politics constantly, using an encrypted app. At one point, on 18 July, Berry allegedly told him he had met a senior Chinese Communist party leader (though he now denies meeting anybody of that rank). In a reply the next day, Cash said: “You’re in spy territory now.” Continue reading...

Politics

62 h. ago China expels No. 2 general and 8 others from the Communist Party in anti

China’s No. 2 general and eight other senior officials have been expelled from the ruling Communist Party and the military on suspicion of serious official misconduct linked to corruption

Politics

4 d. ago The Guardian view on the China spy trial: an opportunity for Labour to prove it understands the threat from Beijing | Editorial

Dispelling confusion about the collapsed case would build confidence that the government has a coherent policyNo single word describes the challenge that China poses for UK foreign policy. There is threat and opportunity; a requirement to engage and an imperative to be guarded. The Communist party in Beijing represses dissent and pursues its interests overseas with coercive nationalist determination. It is not a regime with which Britain can build a relationship based on common values.But China is also a superpower with near-monopoly control of some mineral resources and pre-eminence in important manufacturing supply chains. Trusting friendship is not an option; hostile rejection is unrealistic. It is not easy to manage relations through private diplomacy, let alone under public scrutiny. But Sir Keir Starmer’s government has looked especially awkward in its response to the collapse of a high-profile espionage case, involving the alleged transmission of secrets from inside parliamen...

Events

7 d. ago Britain is 'at risk of falling into a Chinese debt trap' amid spy saga

Chinese investment in the UK economy is substantial and leading economists have voiced fears that could lead to a dependence on the Asian superpower and its ruling Communist Party (CCP).

Events

1 week ago Why I'm convinced Starmer must have played a role in the collapse of this prosecution: Tom Tugendhat

During the past 12 months, the Labour Government has turned capitulation to the Chinese Communist Party into a shoddy kind of art.

Politics

2 w. ago Vietnamese dissident gets 11 more years for criticizing Communist Party in prison

A Vietnamese dissident has been convicted of speaking out inside prison against the ruling Communist Party and sentenced to another 11 years behind bars

Events