The world has changed since, post-Brexit, “Global Britain” set itself to “pivot” from sclerotic Europe towards booming Asia. Always a fanciful idea that disregarded Asian realities, it has now become farcical. Neither China nor India are proving the easy pickings on which “buccaneering” Britain could ride to economic success, denied through being tied to the “corpse” of an EU economy allegedly shackled by regulation and tax. Brexiter ambitions are turning to ashes. Instead, there is China, run by an ever more openly dictatorial and militarily ambitious communist government. Its economy is…
Tag: UK news
Chinese lenders key as Thames Water’s owner seeks time to pay debts
The Dutch bank ING and two Chinese state-owned lenders could play a crucial role in deciding the fate of beleaguered Thames Water, it has emerged. The banks are expected to agree an extension on a £190m loan to the parent company of Britain’s biggest water supplier, which is due to be repaid at the end of this month. The group of lenders to Kemble Water Finance include ING, Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and the Chinese state-owned Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the Financial Times…
Netflix’s 3 Body Problem is sci-fi. But beyond the alien threat lies the trauma of modern China | Tania Branigan
It has brain-bending physics, mysterious visitors and futuristic technology. Yet viewers of the new Netflix sci-fi epic 3 Body Problem could be forgiven for some confusion as its opening scenes unfold. A drama about coming contact with aliens catapults us back to China in 1966, at the height of the Cultural Revolution: we see an eminent physicist viciously attacked by zealots before a howling crowd. As incongruous as it seems, this moment is central to understanding the book on which the show is based. Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem has…
Fast fashion retailer Shein doubles profits as it awaits IPO approval
Shein, the online fast fashion retailer founded in China, has more than doubled its profits to more than $2bn (£1.6bn) as it awaits approval for a stock market listing in New York or London. The company, which is growing rapidly around the world by using social media to promote its goods, recorded sales of about $45bn last year, according to a report in the Financial Times based on information from sources close to the company. Shein, which has moved its headquarters to Singapore, is among the most profitable fashion companies…
Tory immigration policies risk over-reliance on Chinese students, ex-universities minister warns
The Conservative party’s “scorched earth” immigration policies risk UK universities becoming increasingly reliant on students from China to avoid financial crisis, a former universities minister has said. It comes as estimates suggest 25% of tuition fee income at leading British universities already comes from China. Chris Skidmore, who resigned as a Conservative MP earlier this year, said the new restrictions on issuing international student visas, and recent threats to undo the “graduate route” work visas, were sabotaging the government’s own education strategy as well as efforts to diversify university recruitment…
Western governments struggle to coordinate response to Chinese hacking
With the announcement that the UK government would be imposing sanctions on two individuals and one entity accused of targeting – without success – UK parliamentarians in cyber-attacks in 2021, the phrase “tip of the iceberg” comes to mind. But that would underestimate the iceberg. James Cleverly, the home secretary, said the sanctions were a sign that “targeting our elected representatives and electoral processes will never go unchallenged”. But some experts saw it as a sign that the UK had been pushed into a corner by a decision in Washington…
Is China a major threat to British democracy? – Politics Weekly UK – podcast
Despite pressure from some Conservative MPs, the government stopped short of defining China as an official threat this week. How deep does Chinese interference in the UK go? John Harris speaks to the Guardian’s foreign leader writer Tania Branigan and deputy political editor, Peter Walker. As MPs break for Easter, they also discuss the state of the Conservative and Labour parties How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know The Guardian
Foreign Office summons senior Chinese diplomat over ‘malicious cyber activity’
Ministers summoned a senior Chinese diplomat to the Foreign Office on Tuesday after accusing Beijing-backed hackers of a cyber-attack on the British elections watchdog and a surveillance operation on politicians. The department called in China’s chargé d’affaires and told him the UK would not tolerate “threatening” cyber-attacks. An FCDO spokesperson said the ministry had “set out the government’s unequivocal condemnation of Chinese state-affiliated organisations and individuals undertaking malicious cyber activity against UK democratic institutions and parliamentarians”. “The UK government would not tolerate such threatening activity, and would continue to take…
Rishi Sunak faces grilling from MPs over economy, global issues and strategy – UK politics live
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Tuesday briefing: Why the US and UK are going public with warnings about Chinese hacking
Good morning. You’re probably not an MP or peer on the Inter-parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), so that part of yesterday’s cyber-attack revelations needn’t concern you excessively. If you are among the 40 million UK voters included on a register held by the Electoral Commission, though, I have bad news: the Chinese government has your personal details. Yesterday afternoon, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden laid out sanctions in response to the attacks – in the case of the Electoral Commission hack, more than three years after it happened. In co-ordinated…