The UK government has imposed sanctions on two people and a company in response to “malicious” cyberattacks against MPs and the Electoral Commission. But so-called China ‘Hawks’ in the Conservative Party say it should go much further and describe Xi Jinping’s regime as a “systemic threat.”
The row broke out after Britain and the U.S. accused China of launching a “prolific” global campaign of cyberattacks spanning more than a decade and targeting the personal information of politicians, journalists and voters. An attack on Britain’s Electoral Commission is said to have given Beijing the names and addresses of more than 40 million people on the electoral roll.
Western officials say the information gained was intended to help target anti-China groups. They are now considering how to respond to the cyberattack allegations, which Beijing has dismissed as “political manoeuvring.”
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by China and targeted by hackers, said on Tuesday that a handful of sanctions was “too little, too late.” He added:
We are still not facing up to the China threat. The Beijing regime is spying on us, destroying the vestiges of freedom in Hong Kong and pursuing genocide against Uyghurs and Tibetans.
The reality is that if the UK government means business, it must now make it clear that it no longer sees China as an “epoch defining challenge” [as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has described it] but as a “systemic threat.” … We have to do better. China is a threat and we must now recognise that.
Former home secretary Suella Braverman, who still holds some sway among Parliamentary Conservative ranks, said it was “hard to disagree” with Duncan Smith’s assessment.
But ministers are unlikely to go this far. They are now debating whether to declare the Chinese government itself as a threat to British security or simply to point the finger at particular state departments in Beijing. The Times notes that there is particular pressure from the Foreign Office—headed by China-friendly former PM David Cameron—to act with restraint.
Perhaps Britain is so dependent on China, particularly when it comes to trade, that there is little more it can do than enforce minor sanctions. In fact, by warning that punishing Beijing for cyberattacks could hurt trade, Conservative minister Gillian Keegan has already essentially admitted this.
