China is being given too easy a ride by the UK Government, report by MPs warn

COMMUNIST is being given too easy a ride by the UK government, it is warned today.
Ministers must get tough with the growing world power instead of relying on “hope and muddling through”, according to a new report by MPs.

The Foreign Affairs Committee says Britain must get tougher with China

The Foreign Affairs Committee raises “troubling allegations” that Chinese embassy officials have tried to interfere in British universities by trying to silence academics.

It recommends that Chinese companies like Huawei should not be allowed to build vital UK technology such as the UK’s future 5G phone network.

And it condemns Beijing for taking Russia’s side over the Salisbury poisoning and chemical weapons attacks in Syria, as well as its treatment of more a million Muslims held in detention camps in Xinjiang province.

But the MPs also warned Britain against sending Royal Navy vessels to the South China Sea – as planned by Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson – if it gives the “mistaken impression” of “direct military confrontation”.

Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat MP said: “We must recognise that there are hard limits to what cooperation can achieve; that the values and interests of the Chinese Communist Party, and therefore the Chinese state, are often very different from those of the United Kingdom.”

He added: “We do think that a constructive, pragmatic and often positive UK relationship with China is possible. Indeed, it’s essential. But achieving this will require strategy, rigour and unity in place of hope and muddling through.”