By Jessica Frank-Keyes
MPs have criticised the government for having an unclear strategy around its relationship with China, amid a high-profile visit by the foreign secretary James Cleverly.
A parliamentary committee cited “confusion” and “failure to explain policy” on China, following a government announcement of the ‘Indo-Pacific Tilt’ as part of the integrated defence review.
The report by MPs who are members of the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) on the “tilt to the Indo-Pacific” saw them highlight the risk of an unclassified China strategy.
The report concludes there seems to be “confusion across Whitehall… stemming from a failure to explain the policy”, and it urges all relevant ministers be briefed on the higher classification.
MPs also urged the government to recognise repeated attacks on Hong Kong dissidents are part of a wider Communist Party policy of repression and advised the UK should proactively and directly object.
Conservative chairwoman Alicia Kearns said: “It’s only by shoring up our networks in the Indo-Pacific we can temper China’s economic and political expansionism.”
And she added: “The confidential, elusive China strategy is buried deep in Whitehall, kept hidden even from senior ministers across government.
“Our report calls for the government to publish an unclassified China strategy. Strengthening diplomatic, defensive and economic ties is critical – if the West leaves a vacuum, China will eagerly fill it.”
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said the success of Cleverly’s visit would be determined by whether he can secure an end to Chinese sanctions on British MPs.
Senior sources pointed to Cleverly’s Mansion House speech in April as giving the full picture of the UK government’s views on China and said everything they were comfortable with putting in the public domain on China already had been, according to the PA news agency.
