China in Britain: Xi Jinping in London, 2015. Credit: Carl Court/Getty
In any future war between Britain and China, the winner could be decided in a matter of hours — and Britain is unlikely to be the victor. For years now, Chinese businesses have been quietly positioned at the heart of British infrastructure. Were a conflict to erupt, their employees could, willingly or otherwise, be mobilised by Beijing. In fact, they would be legally compelled to.
What could this mean in practice? To put it simply, if he were so inclined, President Xi Jinping could, at the flick of a button, turn off the lights at 10 Downing Street — not to mention freeze Britain’s financial system and paralyse its hospitals.
Perhaps that’s why there has been such a concerted effort by British politicians in recent weeks to address their country’s dependence on trade with Beijing. These efforts are certainly well-intentioned, but as someone who has spent years charting China’s silent campaign of global interference and subversion, I fear they could be too late. In my recent book, Hidden Hand, my co-author Mareike Ohlberg and I detailed the threat the Chinese Communist Party poses to Western democracy. Here, for the first time, a small but disproportionately concerning new aspect of that can be revealed: how China is slowly taking over Britain’s nuclear power and electricity systems.
On the face of it, you could be forgiven for wondering why Chinese investment is so troubling. Why should we care that its businesses are investing in Britain, when those from other countries — including a number of unpleasant ones — do the same? The answer is straightforward. China is different because its businesses can be, and are, used as an extension of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Referred to as a “party-corporate conglomerate”, there is a deep intermingling of China’s business elite with the “red aristocracy” — that is, the Communist Party families that rule the nation. Even President Xi, who pledged to crack down on corruption following the CCP’s 18th National Congress in 2012, has family members with secret offshore bank accounts and hundreds of millions in assets squirrelled away.
At its heart, however, the party-corporate conglomerate is built on the strength of China’s powerful state-owned enterprises. While we in the West once believed that, under the auspices of “globalisation”, drawing China into the global economy would see independent private enterprise prevail, under Xi the opposite has occurred. In 2016, for example, President Xi declared that the party’s leadership is the “root and soul” of state-owned companies and they should “become important forces to implement” the decisions of the party.
More worryingly, the following year China’s parliament passed a law that obliges all Chinese citizens overseas to provide assistance to the country’s intelligence services if requested: Article Seven stipulates that “any organisation or citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work according to law.” And that applies to heads of Chinese corporations as much as to any other citizen. If China’s shadowy Ministry of State Security tells the boss of Huawei in Britain to do some spying, then he is obliged to obey. Anyone who dared to refuse could be escorted back to China quick-smart — never to be seen again.
Such occurrences are, however, rare. Chinese companies have Communist Party cells active inside them — the secretary of the cell is the most powerful person in the company. After all, he (and it normally is a he) represents the masters in Beijing and can over-rule the company’s board. However, conflict between a company board and party cell is hardly common. In 2016, President Xi decreed that the positions of party secretary and chairman of a Chinese company’s board should be occupied by the same person.
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SubscribeAs someone rather depressingly noted on Unherd the other day, when the barbarian is at the gate we won’t be arguing over what pronouns to address them by but it might be an idea to brush up on your Chinese at this rate.
This all began in earnest, in terms of China, with the Great Financial Crisis in 2008 when our self-styled titans of finance completely buggered Western consumer economies by hocking them up to the eye balls with debt and post-bailout forcing them to rely on the seemingly endless supply of ever cheaper Chinese goods to keep the whole s*#tshow on the road.
China’s Trojan horse.
Arguably, in terms of the story of electricity generation, it all began well before that when the Tories thought it would be a top-hole idea to privatise the UK’s electricity supply, culminating in the selling off into ‘private’ hands, read the ‘the French government’s’, of our nuclear industry under the Major government.
To make matters worse, a field in which the UK led the world at the time incidentally.
What is sad is that, unlike the French, we have lost our ability to build nuclear power stations ourselves. I worked for Taylor Woodrow 40 years ago when they contributed design resources to at least two now elderly np stations. Sadly the engineers with the skills are by now retired or dead.
… rather like aerospace …
We also threw away decades of research on molten salt reactors, which could have led to energy sufficiency through thorium breeder reactors if we had held the course.
True. There are still a few interesting Thorium projects in research – in China. Only reason the world selected Uranium/Plutonium was to satisfy US Admiral Rickenbacker who wanted the waste material to make bombs.
Not at the Gate – inside the `gate and have been now for a decade.
So long as you keep believing these fairy stories that the UK led the world in anything in the past century we’ll never be able to even begin to compete against the Chinese and others.
Last year China filed 41% of the world’s new patents. USA 18%. UK 0.4%.
Numbers from World Intellectual Property Org website.
And some people still think we’re the clever ones.
The UK was the world leader in nuclear generation technology for most of the last century.
This is not a fairy story.
How many patents China might have filed last year compared to the UK has got absolutely b****r all to do with that.
I don’t think Britain needs any help with turning the lights off.
With a rush to “Green Electricity”, before there is any way to store electricity and increasing demand with EVs, we will turn the lights off all by ourselves.
PS Yesterday we were already reliant on importing 10% of our electricity!
Let us just hope the wind keeps blowing at exactly the right speed. Perhaps Caroline Lucas can help Johnson with that?
‘Of course, there is nothing to suggest that CGN has any plans to steal commercial secrets relating to Britain’s nuclear energy system.’
Why would they need to steal those secrets when they themselves are the people at the heart of the system? They are the ones with the secrets, not us. Meanwhile, one of Beijing Biden’s first acts as President was to allow the Chinese to invest in US energy infrastructure. This is no surprise given that Hunter was taking money from a Chinese energy firm. As ever, our preternaturally moronic and wholly immoral politicians have created a disaster.
Disaster for whom? In 2006-2009, when real estate all over the US and elsewhere was going in the can, the Chinese kept real estate prices up in NYC (billionairesville) by buying everything solid in sight. Some people made out fine.
Ironically if anyone working for the CCP in China had made such grievous errors of judgment, they would be in a lot of trouble. The likes of Cameron and Osborne, who thought it was a good idea to get into bed with China, just sail on regardless. No consequences, nothing whatsoever
… not forgetting the ubiquitous MSS …
Nobody ever suffers any consequences within our governing system, which is why our governing system so fails so reliably and so remorselessly. All those responsible for Iraq still walk free, happy and rich. Well, Alistair Campbell never seems to be happy what with his ‘mennal ‘elf’ and all that, but nor would I be happy if I’d been substantially responsible for so many deaths.
Great! i wanted to start a death metal band called “Mental Elf” but turns out some “talking cure” clown has it for his mental health website. If you don’t mind my plagiarism we’ll call ourselves Mennal Elf – first album title: “Stop the Glottal Stop” …..
Nothing ironic about it. If you can live with the way politicians are selected/elected, the Chinese system of “government” is infinitely more efficient than ours. This explains why their approval rating seldom drops below 90% (Pew Research, USA) while ours seldom rises above 20%. The results are there for all to see.
Why some people confuse the right to put an X on a piece of paper every 5 years with better government is beyond me.
??? So you think we should be a communist nation. Nice one!
The CCP is malevolent and the U.K needs to start removing and reducing its presence in critical infrastructure and in advanced technology sectors.
… starting with KPMG perhaps …
Is this is a reference to their laptops or their staff?
When will Boris learn? pas d’argent, pas de Suisse!
True. I have a friend that works for Siemens in America. Siemens has a working partnership with the CCP-connected companies. At the headquarters of this particular division, someone noticed that the consumption of printer paper and ink had gone far beyond what normal business would require…it was found that the Chinese “partners” were accessing and printing proprietary documents, and carrying them out in briefcases. An entire new security scheme was put into place because of this discovery of rampant theft. “Partners” indeed.
Years ago a customer of ours built a high speed food processing factory in Guangzhou and we did some of the ICA system. Shifts were 0600-1400. When our guys knocked off the Chinese workers went on to a big grey factory next door to do 1430-2230. Told us it was “top secret” Turns out they repeated what they had done in the day and basically tried to rip off our design. It worked for mech/elec/steel but they were not experienced with PIC/Assembler and 4GL software. So their rip off machine kept faiing. Our instinct was to say “gun kai” but at that time Thatcher’s attack on our technology base was chucking the engineering baby out with the communist bathwater. So we ahd to choose between helping the would be thieves in China or going on the dole. So you can imagine what happened. Also unlike most big British businesses they paid in full, on time.
According to WIPO, last year China filed 41% of all new patents, USA 18% and UK 0.4%.
And you still think we’re the clever ones?
We have some clever ones, but they are shouted down by the likes of Boris or Blair or Brown, in China their ideas are adopted, even if the originators are thrown to the wolves as in the SARS-CoV2 outbreak!
Just how many of those patents are based on stolen R&D?
Ludicrous. Siemens’ largest R&D lab is in China.
Maybe they’re stealing the ink to print fairy stories like yours?
Ford and VW building their “world car” and “world powertrain” projects in PRC for good reason. US/UK beware, you will not outsmart the Chinese. Virtue signals do not pay the rent or buy rice!
Well, yes, it is malicious. But so what? International politics isn’t a morality play, it’s about hard power.
As many countries have taken note, it is also more reliable and predictable in terms of its actions like a mafia don is.
And that may well induce many countries into arrangements, even in Europe, to see which side offers better security than a US that is veering from one ill conceived policy to another like a headless chicken.
They will not go quietly.
And replace them with what? French? German?
The most important strength of this article is that it is largely factual, outlining the extent to which Chinese ownership of important companies and institutions in the West has increased over the last 30 years or so.
Ownership by Chinese companies matters, because there is a long-term strategy at work, and much of the West seems profoundly ignorant of its implications, largely because of a presumption that the Chinese authorities think and behave like us. Especially effective arguments demonstrating how wrong that presupposition is, can be read in two articles published in UnHerd in 2018, one by Mike Martin, and the other by Chris Deerin.
It is true that, as some commenters here argue, some of the companies concerned have sufficient safeguards to prevent the kinds of action mentioned in this article. But that does not minimise the strength of Professor Hamilton’s basic argument that there are powerfully antagonistic aspects to the relationships between Chinese and European strategies and interests, and that these need to be recognised. I hope he will permit me two examples to bolster that issue.
Firstly, I have strong memories of seeing, a few years ago, a television documentary about Chinese ownership of mines in East Africa. I apologise that I am unsure about what the country was, or whether the mine was for coal, gold, or whatever. (Perhaps another reader can supply that information.) Because the programme also referenced the Chinese-financed rebuilding of the Mombassa to Nairobi railway, I suspect the country was Kenya. This pattern of ownership and new transport infrastructure is part of the Chinese government’s vast, international, “Belt and Road Initiative”.
African workers at the mine were interviewed, and bewailed the extent to which Chinese personnel dominated the managerial and other high levels of work. As one of them put it ” he had followed his father into the mining industry when it was run by the British; and in those days, if an African worker showed initiative and ability, he might rise up the ladder of promotion into management levels. That was what had happened to his father, and had given his family an above-average level of prosperity. Under Chinese ownership and management, he said, Africans were kept out of everything in management and decision-making.
The second story concerns events that happened when I was on one of the ten or so official, cultural visits to China that I made over the last fourteen years or so. A leading story in China Daily, the largest English-language paper in China, and owned by the Communist Party, reported how China had been approached by the World Bank, which was selling some of its gold reserves. Did China want to buy any of the gold? No thank you ” we’re buying the mines instead.
An American colleague remarked that a non-democratic government can afford to think like that ” very long-term strategies thrive because there are no worries about the next election. At the very least, all this means that Western powers should be very cautious about allowing Chinese financial power to dominate or even be prominent in, important areas of industry, commerce and culture. Their interests are not ours. Nor are their strategies.
The Nairobi – Mombasa railway was built with 100% local labour.
Agreed, but who gave the orders? Whose was the voice of authority?
Not perchance Fu Manchu & Co?
Yes, this really is the point – and I say it without any relish at all. That is perhaps sub-Saharan Africa’s greatest tragedy in the post-colonial era.
Cyber attacks could cripple every bit of digital infrastructure in this country so ownereship is is pretty irrelevant. Allowing firms like Huawei an inroad would, of course, be to increase the ease whereby China could do us harm.
Apparently this article has stirred up a nest of anti-US Sinophiles, or CCP trolls, who seem to ignore or have no problem with the clearly totalitarian regime in iron control of China and the Chinese people.
Yes indeed. Where is Eugene Norman when you need him?
… under MSS control perhaps ?
Douglas Murray makes the point that in no small part thanks to the Western economies’ governments’ reaction to Covid, a good many of these precious, vital national assets and businesses will be going for a relative song at this rate.
There are no prizes for guessing which country will be at the front of the queue to pick over these cut priced carcasses.
So some truth in elements of this article.
I worked in Ofgem, BEIS and also attended many meetings in cabinet office meeting rooms (aka COBRA) with the agencies to discuss some of these investments. There is no risk of what the author talks about taking place. It is absolute rubbish.
For starters, there are controlled positions in these companies which required security clearance. The systems are totally segregated with huge amounts of security. They are all regulated entities anyway and if the Chinese or any other owner decided to break licence conditions that were set at privatisation relating to the duties of the owner, the company would be de facto nationalised anyway!
The risks created by Chinese investment are totally different to the ones the author has written about and are analysed much more strategically.
… you don’t have to be Chinese to belong to MSS …
I strongly doubt you can be MSS and work in a controlled role in CNI
The Author’s piece is way too simple, its pub talk dressed up as journalism
It is disappointingly poor and as you say more like the conspiracy theory fantasy of a pub bore who has done too much reading but doesnt know what they are talking about.
Yet one more reason to hold the CCP accountable for the virus:
1) try them for intentionally spreading the virus (Wuhan was locked down with the virus spreading within; once the virus was maximally passed around Wuhanese were allowed to travel…but only internationally, not within China; at least this is my recollection of some accounts, but surely we can find out?);
2) fine them for all damages to all persons and economies–they can afford the fine, what’s a few 10s of trillions to them;
3) declare China a biological threat to the world due to its poor public health policies and quarantine them; no one enters/leaves China without first undergoing 30 day quarantine, outside of China, at the traveller’s expense. This calls out the CCP and in a way that makes their protestations irrelevant.
4) express love and admiration, friendship for Chinese people…and the exact opposites for the CCP. The new Evil Empire.
Cool. I assume you don’t mind the rest of the world holding us accountable for spreading our AIDS/HIV virus around the world and killing 32 million (and still counting). Fair’s fair.
When did they let you out?
His real name is Fu Manchu, and he probably doesn’t have a telephone because he might “wing the wong number” as we used to say in those happy, far off, halcyon days of Enid Blyton and the Atlantic Coast Express.
Absurd false equivalency…and “Fair’s fair”? Our AIDS/HIV?
China a ‘biological threat to the World’, spot on.
If the West had the audacity of the Roman Republic, the cry would be ‘Sino Delenda Est’! (China must be destroyed) to use the words of Cato the Censor.
We don’t need China to turn off the lights or destroy the economy. We have Boris and his gang of clowns who plan a race to zero carbon which will destroy our grid system and more of the economy. Now the USA has Boden doing exactly the same.
In the world of realt politique, it seems that increasingly the West is playing a gentle game of paintball, not realising that there are a number of powerful nations – two anyway – who have real bullets in their backpacks. Even in the less connected world of the 1930’s can you imagine the results if the Nazi’s had had an ability to turn our electricity and gas off, and keep them off?
But of course, that will never happen again.
Prof Hamilton is also a Green catastrophist with a very particular perspective on energy production/distribution. Demonising the world’s biggest polluter and growing military power is understandable and plays into the politics of reactionary Green energy policies.
That said, I would declare China a hostile power, relieve it of its UK assets and try through direct engagement to remedy the de-development resulting from the Chinese belt and road initiative.
China will do to the greenies what it does to Uighers and Tibetans if it has too.
1250 coal/gas pwer stations on order from Africa over the nexty 10 yrs- Turks, Italians and Spanish will do the civils/steel, China, Japan etc will do the prime movers, the balance of plant and the electrickery, the wset will get what little is left.
Green is just a theory based in Europe. The rest of the world will just smile and carry on as normal. Green means what you want it to mean.
Given the economic devastation wrought by this pandemic that originated in China and which the Chinese tried hard to deny, I shuld like to see wholescale aquistion of all Chinese assets in the UK. Privatly owned or corportate makes no difference. Take over the lot.
If the present owners complain, it is a matter for them to deal with their government. For, if as alleged in the article, ownership is directly likned to party position, it becomes an internal political matter in China that hundreds of thousands of wealthy party members have been financially ruined by their own political party.
A brilliant idea but first we need a real leader, rather like WSC.
Sadly, I do not see one, but do you?
… how odd it is that the MSS is rarely, if ever, mentioned in mass media output in England or America ! Ubiquitous, deeply embedded, sleeper-rich and siphoning, siphoning intelligence and intellectual property back to the motherland … the reason is elusive but may have to do with red gold or”
Nixon, arguably the progenitor of rapprochement with China, is said to have stated shortly before his death that he/we had created a Frankenstein in China.
How correct he was, and yet ‘we’ have consistently ignored this horror, much to the disadvantage of our Allies in South East Asia.
Unpleasant as it maybe now is the time to act and rid the globe of the of the pestilential menace that is the CCP. ‘Tomorrow’ will be too late.
Are you suggesting that nations of the democratic West club together and go to war against Communist China? Or do you envisage a less drastic method to “rid the globe” before it’s too late?
No, forget the Democratic West, a worthless bunch of feckless toads.
The US, and the US alone is quite capable of dealing with this obvious “Frankenstein”.
However, once achieved they must not like the late Roman Republic, start fighting amongst themselves.
Sorry, but I am going to press the question: are you calling for Western (ie. US) military action against China?
Don’t forget to factor into your plans the fact that, as the socialist rot sets in, feckless toadiness (in its favourite humanitarian garb) becomes a feature of US politics.
Yes, I have considered that, and believe that time is fast running out, and action must be taken before the cancer of socialism completely emasculates the US.
A suitable ‘causus belli’ will be necessary, as it was in 1898, 1941,& 2001.
Before I am accused of Sinophobia, I wholeheartedly applaud the recent passing of a capital sentence on the banker Lao Xiaomin for corruption and bigamy. China is not completely without merit, as I am sure you will agree.
Any war with China that moved beyond a skirmish or a proxy war would go nuclear. Hostilities could even go nuclear at proxy level.
If you haven’t read it could I recommend “The Nuclear Express” by Thomas Reed and Danny Stillman. The book has much valuable information on the consequences of China’s refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ““ noted beneficiaries of that were almost certainly North Korea, Iran and Pakistan.
At the moment it is highly unlikely that the Chinese can hit the continental United States (CONUS) with a nuclear weapon. However within 10, perhaps even 5 years, both Anchorage and Seattle maybe within range.
Currently the US triad of B-2 bombers, ICBM’s and Nuclear -Ballistic submarines (SSBN) are more than adequate to destroy China. Moa’s idiotic boast that China could absorb millions of casualties is too simplistic to be taken seriously. They will face Armageddon.
What is slightly more worrying is the proliferation of nuclear weapons to potential rogue states. Too primitive to have produced a conventional delivery system, they will have to infiltrate a small nuclear weapon into the US, probably in its component parts, resemble and deliver it, using something like ‘Uber’ to the centre of Times Square. Detonation would be by the hand of a suicide operator, of which they have no shortage. An apposite codeword might be “Gaza”.
Such a scenario would certainly “make your eyes water” on Wall St, and cause a modicum of financial damage.
Finally that raddled old acronym MAD will not apply if the US acts promptly during this rapidly closing ‘window’ of opportunity.
There are more effective targets than Wall St. and nuclear bombs have been dramatically reduced in size since 1945. As you say, components can be infiltrated.
Consider a strike on the nuclear reactors and fuel storage facilities near Chicago. A nuclear blast there would create a rain of deadly fallout. A strike on the cities of Washington, Paris, London on Berlin would have destructive effects on the Western economy beyond merely local.
It is not widely known that Al Qaeda came close to being able to mount a nuclear attack. In 2000 they approached a Pakistan based charity with this object in mind. The charity was officially created to support Afghan refugees but the founder and most of its leaders worked at Pakistan’s nuclear weapons agency. Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar attempted to get a weapon for the Taliban. This would, of course, be used by Al Qaeda. Fortunately, action by the Musharraf government put a stop to the plan.
It is astonishing that Islam in the form of Pakistan has yet to detonate a bomb. Realistically is Pakistan a ‘safe pair of hands’? If so, for how long? It would slightly ironic if a former first class cricketer started WWIII.
Still having lived through the “4 minute warning era” as you have, when upwards of 80 Soviet nuclear missiles were targeted on the UK, it is easy to be complacent.
Interestingly I was discussing this topic a few days ago on UnHerd with a Mark H who had this to say about the South Africa N bombs
“Well maybe 4 because there was a suspicious explosion in the South Atlantic of which the govt denied all knowledge. There were certainly 3 that had to be dismantled at the end of Apartheid”
So perhaps there is some hope,
but I doubt it. When it comes it maybe the equivalent of those fateful shots in Sarajevo.
The first test of a Pakistani nuclear device may have been carried out courtesy of the Chinese. According to Danny Stillman, in the book I referred to previously, on May 26 1990 the PRC detonated Pakistan’s first A-bomb at their Lop Nur nuclear test site. This is a full 8 years before the Chaghi test.
Stillman is a reliable source as he was able to visit the Chinese nuclear complex during an all too brief era of post-Mao transparency. He says there was clear evidence of Pakistani visitors at the complex. There is also evidence that the Pakistanis were helped along by being given China’s CHIC-4 weapon design.
Regarding South Africa, the Americans were convinced their instruments had detected a small nuclear explosion in the South Atlantic on September 22, 1979. I have read that fully 6 devices were dismantled at the end of Apartheid. The de Klerk administration did not want a black African government to have control of nuclear weapons. The proliferation problem is not just about hardware though. There were many highly skilled nuclear weapons technicians whose careers had come to a sudden halt ““ open to offers, naturally.
You mean like Germany? What a laugh.
I don’t “mean” anybody. I am just wondering what GEORGE LAKE has in mind.
If you look at his response it’s pretty clear what he had in mind. The notion of the Democratic west banding together is ludicrous. The EU alone can’t band together, why would anyone think the entire west could accomplish it. George is correct, as usual, it will have to be the US. The problem there is that the US president is beholden to China. So for now, nothing will be done.
The current trend for anti-China scares is quite ridiculously irresponsible. Pundits who have almost certainly set foot in China are posing as experts and poisoning the atmosphere on our planet currently. No westerner should believe he or she understands China and certainly not seek to bolster the red scare being engendered just to maintain the West’s dubious patrician dominance. China is NOT our enemy and observers assuming a war mode stance cannot possibly bring anything good.
It is very unpleasant to see the utterly skewed commentaries on China here at UnHerd. You could be forgiven for thinking we are at war with that nation by reading the interminable articles spreading fear on these pages. China does not deserve this. Not at all. When the UK was side by side with the USA fomenting an attack on and invasion of Iraq on trumped up charges based on misinformation and disinformation China was one of the few that stood up against their clear malignant irresponsibility. The UK and USA went ahead with their plans and over one hundred thousand Iraqis dies as a result. This and other regime change wars of choice have left the entire Middle East fragmented and a powder keg awaiting the next explosions. To turn around and mount a campaign of thinly-veiled attacks on a China that protested these acts of state-authorized mass murder is mind-blowing in its venal hypocrisy.
“….there is a deep intermingling of China’s business elite with the “red aristocracy” — that is, the Communist Party families that rule the nation.” Now what does that remind me of? Im no fan of the PRC/CCP’s creeping takeover and influence, nor their politics and stance on human rights, and certianly feel that they are a threat to democracy. However, there is a little bit of hypcrocy or perhaps blindness in reporting that seeks to paint elements of their practices negatively when they are so pervasive within our western demorcracies.
â¤â¤â¤GO CHINA!! â¤LONG LIVE “THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC” OF CHINA!!🇨🇳â¤
â¤LONG LIVE CCP. â¤
LONG XI JINPING!!â¤â¤â¤ ✌😎
Yeah. Always thought President Xit looks like a cuddly teddy bear.
Me imagino lo que hubiera escrito este autor de los ferrocarriles construidos por Gran Bretana en Argentona en el siglo XIX. EstarÃa súmamente preocupado y no agradecido ya que los capitles ingleses eran dueños de toda la conección agropecuaria e industrial de Argentina !!!!
Lo que le deberÃa preocupar es porque deben ser capitales Chinos y no Anglosajones los que invierten. Parece que estos estan dedicados al entretenimiento y las finanzas y no a producir !!!!
Here’s Pedro’s piece run through Google Translate:
“I imagine what this author would have written about the railways built by Great Britain in Argentona in the 19th century. He would be extremely worried and not grateful since the English capitals were the owners of all the agricultural and industrial connection of Argentina !!!!
What should concern you is because it should be Chinese capital and not Anglo-Saxon ones that invest. It seems that these are dedicated to entertainment and finance and not to produce !!”
My comment for Pedro, having spent some considerable time in Argentina, is that had the UK and other European countries still been major participants in Argentine economics, and had Juan Pedro not been able to take the country over, Argentina would still be a major economic force in the world today, instead of being relegated to the sad position of basket case. Partly in jest but with a basis in reality, a porteno, a resident of Buenos Aires, is primarily an Italian who is forced to speak Castillano, but wished he were British, as it tends to be the British-built infrastructure which has survived the best. Que triste!
When did Harrods close its BA shop?
Construido por los manos Gales, con dinero de rEINO uNIDO, pero acuerdo con la mayoria de tu escrituras
… that Huawei UK (sic) director called Cahn, says that Huawei is “” like the John Lewis of China”” … I wonder how the other Huawei UK directors are doing. Is there an MSS connexion here ? – or just the dear old, Silk Road, China Communist Party ?
Come in MI6.
Come in MI5 : you know what’s going on …
FYI: Huawei is a PRIVATELY owned company – I’m a shareholder. It has nothing to do with the Chinese government. Listed on HK Stock Exchange. Huawei does not even have a telephone/network operating license in China.
No, there is no “secret backdoor” in Huawei’s switches. There’s a TelNet port. The EXACT SAME TelNet port the last UK-designed phone network (2G) had. MI5/GCHQ gave Huawei thumbs up before Trump and Fatboy Pompeo ordered us to dump them.
There is no longer an Mi5/6 -there are Russian passport holders wandering around AWE as we speak who got clearance as Polish citizens. The security services are otherwise engaged – see the meta data around Max Moseley’s much publiced BDSM sting.
This disturbing report confirms fears that I have had for some time. And while this report concentrates on the power sector, Chinese companies are heavily involved in others too, not least UK ports. The stance taken by the UK over Hong Kong will have a reaction from China. The decision to offer many Hong Kong residents citizenship of the UK, while very laudable, will have repercussions at some point. The Chinese Govt. will not let go without some retribution, and now that we are out of Europe and totally isolated from EU support makes us even more vulnerable.
Project Fear v 2.1
‘and now that we are out of Europe and totally isolated from EU support makes us even more vulnerable.’
Sure. I’d try telling that to the Greeks if I were you.
As result of the financial crisis, its seriously misguided adoption of the Euro and its resulting unsustainable debt, Greece was effectively required not only to sell off much of its infrastructure and utilities at firesale prices to the Germans and Russians, it also had to sell its prized port Piraeus to the Chinese for next to nothing in an attempt to just service its debt.
If you seriously think that the EU made any attempt whatsoever to stand in the way of this then please feel free to let me know.
Isolated from EU support? But naive isn’t it. How well is EU support doing for countries with COVID these days? You do not think the EU would defend the UK over Hong Kong residents, do you?
I’m going to learn to speak Chinese.
… & islamese…
Better learn the kowtow as well, you’ll need it.
Just as a matter of interest … are most of the employees in these essential businesses Uk citizens? Even though the company may be owned by Chinese stooges, if there was such a hideous call, the UK govt could give the few Chinese workers or owners the boot and nationalise the businesses? They are still on our turf are they not?
Remember the scandal (all too quickly forgotten) of the Chinese owned clothing factories of northern Italy. Staffed with Chinese rather than local workers they are said to have played a major part in the early spread of Covid. The Chinese, it seems, preferred to use their own people but needed the kudos of “Made in Italy”.
Would a democracy simply declare a private business nationalized because it doesn’t care for the owners? That seems more like something that China would do.
We have already followed in China’s footsteps by imposing a draconian lockdown. If the push comes to shove, for the sake of our safety and security, I wouldn’t bat an eyelid and throw out any hegemony that is trying to undermine us.
And you don’t think China is doing that now?
What about in Australia? Perhaps we could insist that all Chinese residents living here for more than say 4 years, be encouraged by law to become Australian citizens, which means that they renounce their Chinese citizenship and make a legally binding oath to support Australia. If found in contravention of such oath, they would be subject to investigation. Those that refuse Aussie citizenship would be asked why. Perhaps Chinese ownership of land and critical businesses and infrastructure ought to be banned in future or even retrospectively as it probably is in China. And finally, let us all be polite and respectful to China as a great world power, whilst still enunciating and maintaining the principles by which we live here and of which we are justly proud.
Boris does not need any help to turn off his lights and the rest of the country. He is doing a good job with the utter nonsense of zero-carbon policies. At least Trump recognised that America needed cheap, reliable energy, so he had to go so that America could continue the decline with the rest of western countries.
Sinophobia’s roots are the same as antisemitism or islamophobia. Success or greatness leads to envy, envy to spite and spite to lies. (Thx JK Rowling) China does not harbour military ambitions outside its borders, just commercial ones, unless you attack first (Indians, Llamas, East Turkestanis) If you understand anything about UKs power generation/distribution system you’ll realise China cannot harm it but America could – they have source code for Emmerson Delta V and most other DCSs used in our power system. China has done with racism and debt what the west could never do with racism and guns. If the Africans chop them or kick them out bye bye electricity, well stocked shops and usable roads, all of which Xi acquired without firing a shot as per Sun Tzu’s compendium. Don’t fight people who do better than you, make an alliance then copy them. It worked for Sikander the Illegitimate in Korashan.
Fear of a genuine and obvious threat is not a phobia – a phobia is irrational – concern over Chinese expansionism and globalist ambitions is not
I expect you would have talked of Churchill’s “Germanophobia” in the 30s as many did?
Funny. China is the ONLY Member of the UN Security Council that has NEVER (in 4,000 years of history) invaded another sovereign nation or dropped a bomb outside its borders. Can’t say the same about USA, Russia or France. Or the UK. And you think it’s China who are the “expansionists”?
Modern China is comprised of many former nations, they are not and have never been just one big happy family.And don’t forget wars by proxy.
“NEVER (in 4,000 years of history) invaded another sovereign nation”.
Where did you learn such arrant tosh?
What about the numerous Qing wars against Tibet and Burma for example?
Your sinophilia is so blatant it reminds me of the wretched Noel Needham. The only word for it is deranged or are you being paid for it?
Tibet and India…
Oh really? Tell that to the Taiwanese. They’ll be China’s next target.
The indigenous people of Taiwan want the invaders who took over their beautiful island (Formosa) in 1949 to get out and go back to Fujian and Shanghai. They are perfectly happy to be part of the People’s Republic of China. I take it you’ve never been there. Read about it in a magazine.
Their economies are intertwined – Formosa Plastics has billions invested in PRC and SinoPet the other way.
Sikander the b*****d in Korashan?
What is this if I may ask?
Perhaps some reference to the homicidal Macedonian pygmy who some call Alexander the Great?
I beg to disagree, Sinophobia is not based
on envy but apprehension.
Do we seriously envy a nation that killed upwards of 40 million of its own subjects in the “Great Leap Forward”, a further 2-3 million in the so called Cultural Revolution, and consumes about 10 million dogs a year? I think not
However the West is correct to be apprehensive about the belligerent nature of China and its concurrent military build up.
It all seems rather deja vu, and reminiscent of the 1930’s don’t you think?
I know what you mean – the great leap forward & its famine is possibly the biggest direct pro-rata mass murder in history, Mao certainly unbeatable on “deaths caused” in our Dictator Top Trumps. However the US and their UK poodles would win a contest for indirect deaths via World Bank and IMF in Africa/LatAm/SE Asia 1950s-80s. Communism failed through its own weakness, our starving the “wretched of the earth” just gave it a bit more oxygen IMO. So as a citizen of a state that committed such crimes i am apprehensive that our victims may try and get us on the way back, China included. Hope it doesn’t come to this but in the end I’d sooner die with a weapon in my hand than running away.
The insatiable greed of the IMF and World Bank, pale into insignificance compared to the horror story that is China. There can be no equivalence here.
However I agree with you that China has an almost pathological desire for revenge at any cost, and we must prepare accordingly.
TBH I struggle with such close moral relativism. If its a parking fine V axe murder the water is clear. But US Lead post 1945 horrors in LatAm, MEA v China and Russia’s same the water is pretty muddy. I suppose ultimately i’ll side with the West as i live here and its done fine for me. Anyway Sun Tzu tells of the strategy “muddy the water to catch the fish” so we’d better be careful if we wish to oppose China. I’m for dealing with them as friends. If KSA are our friends why not the Chinese. When their middle class is bigger and richer than ours we’ll go back to manufacturing for them like we did 1800-1945. Fine by me.
Your earlier remark “I’d sooner die
with a weapon in my hand than running away” is rather chilling but I fear the most likely outcome.
Despite Sun Tzu and his ‘descendant’ Sun Bin, the Chinese seem to be following a different course, in fact a traditional, belligerent, Western course, rather like the Japanese (1867-1945) before them.
Toadying to wretched KSA is one thing, but supping with Chinese quite another.
Off course none of this exculpates us and our master the US. We never learn.
More than two thousand years ago the Roman Republic set up an Extortion Court to allow non Romans to sue the state for the damages inflicted by rapacious Provincial Governors. Cicero’s prosecution of Verres being but one example. Did we or the US every mirror this? Certainly not, to our eternal shame.
… untaught in England’s schools, presumably …
Off course, not a word!
Fortunately, I gather the US Navy is well aware of the threat and is acting accordingly.
“Sikander the illegitimate in Korashan”
What is this if I may ask?
Perhaps some reference to the homicidal Macedonian pygmy who some call Alexander the Great ?
Not sure why China is such a bad thing. Our protests come along because we have been taught to bow to the Americans. Time to kow-tow to somebody else for a change.
So ‘bowing’ is to be the hallmark of the new “Global Brexit Britain” then.
And global EU Britain. Don’t forget that Germany has closed down most of our industry in the last 30 years.
There are Brits who just have to bow. To someone, anyone. They know no other way and they have neither the competence nor the confidence to do anything else, it’s more than tiresome, Especially to people who are fundamentally opposed to such behavior. Like Americans.
Go there-it may then become clear…if you are truly serious.
Have been there – working for a few days.
I lived and worked in China for 20 years. There is nothing to be afraid of. Stop believing the fairy stories and you’ll be OK.
If you really don’t like them stop using their Internet and 3G/4G mobile networks. Throw away your phone and bin your flatscreen TV. Otherwise you’ll just be another brave keyboard warrior bashing China. With your Chinese keyboard.
Reminds me of the time when I was in Houston watching a St Patricks Day parade. There was an endless stream of old American cars from the 60s and kids were handing out American flags for everyone to wave. The cars were crap, of course and the little flags were stamped with ‘Made In China’. The whole set-up in the USA is phoney and I would not follow them for anything. Don’t have a problem with China today if I had to choose.
-“endless stream of American cars from the 60s”…no doubt there should have been some Citroen 2cvs, rusted MGs, Fiats, etc.-not “crap, of course”. Ford won Lemans…in the 60s-right around when Americans walked on the moon. You clearly have a bone to pick-it shows up often, this problem of yours.
Americans do not bow. That should have been clear from 1776 on. Keep that over there, please.
Oh no. Yet another book-selling “China Expert” who has obviously ZERO experience with anything to do with China.
Cut it out.
Whilst, sir, you seem very close to to China. Very close
What goes around… less than 200 years ago Britain was pushing 300,000kg of opium a year into China, stealing Hong Kong etc….
Get serious-drop the glib, junior college rhetoric.
Unfortunately this is also what the Chinese mainly believe and haven’t forgotten about.
When I was in Beijing in the Temple of Heaven there was a whole museum room devoted to the two great imperialist island-devils: the British and the Japanese.
Are you denying this? EVERYONE knows the British East India company imported opium from India and distributed it in China so they could get their hands on Chinese silver. Disgraceful.
Free trade and supply and demand, nothing wrong with that is there?
Besides the wretched Qin were incapable of defending themselves and stuck in a nostalgic time-warp.
Vae victis!
As it has, and always will be.
Besides the wretched Qin were incapable of defending themselves and stuck in a nostalgic warp.
Sounds like GB
Totally! â¤Go China!! 🇨🇳â¤âœŒ
“China’s silent campaign of global interference and subversion,”So unlike the Americans blatant campaigns of regime toppling and country invasion then!It’s high time commentators moved beyond the Yellow Peril meme.
I doubt you would move beyond if you lived in one of the countries bordering the South China Sea. Or indeed, in Australia.
South China Sea? Ever heard of the Falklands? A bit rich, isn’t it? 8,600 miles away from the UK.
Major Plonquer (great adjective and noun combination, by the way!)
Some further education for you!
British reply to the Argentine letter sent on 3 January 2020 to the UN addressed to the Secretary-General, about the Question of the Falkland Islands
Letter dated 20 February 2020 from the UK Permanent Representative the United Nations, Karen Pierce addressed to the Secretary-General
British reply to the Argentine letter sent to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, about the Question of the Falkland Islands: Letter dated 20 February 2020 from the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General.
“In accordance with instructions received from the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, I have the honour to refer to the letter dated 3 January 2020 from the Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations addressed to you. I should be grateful if you would circulate the present letter and its annex as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 43. (Signed) Karen Pierce
“The United Kingdom is clear about both the historical and legal position on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. No civilian population was expelled from the Falkland Islands on 3 January 1833. An Argentine military garrison had been sent to the Falkland Islands three months earlier in an attempt to impose Argentine sovereignty over British sovereign territory. The United Kingdom immediately protested and later expelled the Argentine military garrison on 3 January 1833. The civilian population, who had previously sought and received British permission to reside on the Islands, were encouraged to remain. The majority voluntarily chose to do so. In 1833, the territorial borders of the Republic of Argentina did not include the geographical southern half of its present form, nor any territory in the Falkland Islands, Antarctica, or South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The land that now forms the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, of which the Republic of Argentina purportedly claims the Falkland Islands forms a part, did not itself form part of the Republic of Argentina until approximately half a century after 1833, by which time the current Falkland Islands people had lived and raised two generations on the Islands. British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands dates back to 1765, some years before the Republic of Argentina even existed.
“The United Kingdom’s relationship with the Falkland Islands, and all of its overseas territories, is a modern one based on partnership, shared values and the right of the people of each territory to determine their own future. The United Kingdom Government attaches great importance to the principle and the right of self-determination as set out in Article 1.2 of the Charter of the United Nations and article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, respectively.
“As such, the United Kingdom remains committed to defending the rights of the people of the Falkland Islands to determine their own political, social and economic future. This includes unequivocal support for the right of the Falkland Islanders to develop their natural resources for their own economic benefit. Hydrocarbon exploration in the Falkland Islands is a legitimate commercial venture regulated by the legislation of the Falkland Islands Government, in strict accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Argentine domestic law does not apply to the Falkland Islands. The politically motivated decision by a previous Argentine Government to target the assets of, and to criminalize the activities of individuals working for, international companies involved in Falklands hydrocarbons is a wholly unacceptable attempt to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction, and has no legal justification whatsoever. Furthermore, it has dangerous implications for global business and the principles of free trade.
“The Republic of Argentina regularly refers to regional statements of diplomatic support for sovereignty negotiations, including United Nations resolutions. However, none of these modify or dilute the obligation on States to respect the legally binding principle of self-determination. This means there can be no dialogue on sovereignty unless the Falkland Islanders so wish. The 2013 referendum ““ in which 99.8 per cent of those who voted wanted to maintain their current status as a territory of the United Kingdom ““ sent a clear message that the people of the Islands do not want dialogue on sovereignty.
“Additionally, the Government of Argentina regularly refers to the military presence in the Falkland Islands. The United Kingdom’s forces in the South Atlantic are entirely defensive, and are at the appropriate level to ensure the defence of the Falkland Islands against any potential threat. In fact, the United Kingdom’s military presence has significantly reduced over time. The United Kingdom continues to keep its force levels under review.
“The United Kingdom and the Falkland Islands Government remain willing to discuss areas of mutual interest in the South Atlantic, with the precondition that representatives of the Falkland Islands Government must participate in any discussion of issues that affect the Falkland Islands people directly”
It’s definitely time for you to move beyond the childish false equivalency non-sequitur response.
… but they can’t advance into debate – let alone move into adult thought mode … let them research the MSS …
I think we have all moved beyond the yellow peril.
I expect you are looking froward to the installation of Chinese total surveillance systems.
Having lived and worked in China for over 20 years, I can tell you are totally brainwashed. There’s a reason so many companies and countries want to do business in and with China. And it’s not surveillance systems. Coming from someone in the UK that’s a bit rich. Most surveilled nation on Earth.
Sorry, I pushed the wrong button. I thought le Plonquer was talking about China being the most surveilled country on earth. Methinks he is wrong; could it just possibly be China?… You choose!
Whataboutery