FRIEND OR FOE?
The problem for many countries, especially those in Europe struggling with tepid economic growth and facing the prospect of a hostile trade relationship with the US under Donald Trump, is that China is too big a market to ignore.
However, the price of doing business with China is often to downplay the influence operations, espionage, dumping and other malign activities that Beijing seems reluctant to dispense with.
From China’s perspective, the goal of such operations is to learn more about and gain more influence over countries in the West that are seen as competitors or rivals. London is a particularly good target, not only as a major economy and global power, but a close ally to the United States, major contributor to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and significant defence power in its own right.
The UK now must decide whether to paper over these unsightly activities by China for the sake of economic ties, or to make its position known to China.
A key moment will be whether the government allows a new Chinese embassy to be built on the site of the former Royal Mint, the maker of UK coins, in east London, despite objections from local authorities.
If approved, it would be China’s largest embassy in Europe and more than a third larger than the US’ own new embassy in south London. The number of diplomatic staff would give a huge boost to potential Chinese influence and espionage operations in the UK.
It remains to be seen if that is a price the Starmer government is willing to pay.
Christian Le Miere is a foreign policy adviser and the founder and CEO of Arcipel, a strategic advisory firm based in London.
