CHINA
- HMG has, previously, chosen to portray this security/economy tension positively—as a 'balanced approach'—saying:
Government policy towards China is forward-leaning and robust, clear-eyed on the risks while engaging on areas where there are clear benefits to the UK.[1]
- However, the External Expert witnesses who gave evidence to this Committee in 2019 felt very strongly that HMG did not have any strategy on China, let alone an effective one, and that it was singularly failing to deploy a 'whole-of-government' approach when countering the threat from China—a damning appraisal indeed.
- Raffaello Pantucci, of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told the Committee:
I think the problem is that every department has seemingly a different [China] strategy … we do not have a China strategy and at the moment what has been allowed to happen is that each department had frankly been plugging along with their own iteration of a China strategy, meaning you don't have a coherent response. We have got essentially a situation where the centre has not made it clear what the China strategy is, articulated it in a clear and coherent fashion, and then everyone will flow from that. We have lots of institutions that are, frankly, doing their own thing.[2]
When we put this to the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) of HMG's China policy in July 2019, he admitted that the 'China Framework' (the strategy on China) was a relatively new development and "a work in progress".[3]
- Until the publication of the Integrated Review in March 2021, HMG's overarching approach towards China had not officially changed since the China Framework was formally agreed by the National Security Council (NSC) in November 2018—despite the fact that the landscape around the UK's China policy had changed significantly since then. In October 2020, the Acting National Security Adviser—who had taken over as SRO of HMG's China policy—told us that the Government’s approach to China had been discussed over the course of NSC meetings in October 2019 and June 2020 and would be updated by way of the Integrated Review.[4]
- Prior to its publication, the Committee was told that the Integrated Review would also address HMG's overall approach to economic security: whilst it was recognised that China's economic growth and influence cannot be ignored, nevertheless we were assured that there was an understanding in the Government of the need to "robustly protect our domestic economic security … This includes a focus on increasing national economic resilience and
- ↑ Written evidence—HMG, 18 April 2019
- ↑ Oral evidence—Raffaello Pantucci (RUSI), 16 May 2019.
- ↑ Oral evidence—HMG, *** July 2019.
- ↑ Oral evidence—HMG, *** October 2020. Global Britain in a Competitive Age: the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy (the 'Integrated Review') was published on 16 March 2021 and sets out the Government's vision of the UK's role in the world. It contains a number of actions which the Government commits to taking in support of that view. A refresh of the initial Integrated Review was later published on 13 March 2023 (after evidence-taking for this Inquiry had concluded).
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