Ipac audit says UK's China policy is incoherent and short on expertise

Mixed · 2The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), an international grouping of China-sceptic legislators, published an audit on Wednesday 14 October saying the UK's approach to China is "beset by incoherence". 1 2 Left · 1The Guardian reports that the audit cites a visiting Chinese delegation, which noted that nobody engaging with Beijing at a senior level in government was a Mandarin speaker or had significant experience of living in China. It adds that British expertise exists but is often siloed and "not translated into capability". 1 Right · 1GB News reports that the 53-page document says Whitehall departments pursue "mutually contradictory approaches" and shows "naivety" about what Beijing wants. It attributes the lack of expertise to budget cuts. 2

Left · 1The audit says engagement must be framed by an understanding that the PRC is "an inherently hostile authoritarian state that does not share our values". The Guardian says it accepts that "disengagement was not an option" but calls for clear red lines on critical infrastructure, frontier technologies and human rights. 1 Mixed · 2Recommendations include better institutional coordination, stronger use of national security tools and diversified supply chains. GB News says they include a unit modelled on the US State Department's China House to join up government action. 1 2 Right · 1GB News adds that the report warns of "substantial evidence" of Britain becoming a destination for excess Chinese industrial output and a "backdoor" into the European market in steel, batteries and EVs. It also flags software flaws in Chinese-supplied renewables such as solar inverters as an energy security risk and says polarised politics and populist parties offer "an opportunity for further Chinese influence". 2

Left · 1The Guardian says the audit sees emerging technologies such as AI as raising new disinformation and surveillance challenges. It also sees climate as a low-risk area for cooperation, saying climate targets will not be met without cooperation with China and "accepting medium term dependence", including supply chains tainted by forced labour. 1 Mixed · 2Tom Tugendhat endorsed the report as "a clear-eyed and realistic take on the defining foreign policy problem of this century". GB News says it was also backed by Treasury Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier. Its foreword is by Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Baroness Helena Kennedy, who say UK long-term interests have been "routinely subordinated to short-term wins". 1 2 Right · 1GB News says the report followed ministers' refusal to publish the findings of the government's own audit of relations with China. 2

Right · 1A government spokesman said working with China offers opportunities on trade, climate and stability, but that the government is "clear-eyed about the threats China poses" and that national security is its first duty. A Chinese embassy spokesman called Ipac "a downright anti-China organisation" and said its audit "distorts the facts" and is "not even worth refuting". 2 Left · 1Kerry Brown, a former diplomat and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, told the Guardian that the focus on language skills was "very welcome" but that "the critical issue now is lived experience" in China. He said some Ipac members promote a security-oriented idea that going to China exposes people to risk, and that lived experience is hard to gain and seems unsupported. 1