'Let this be the year in which Ministers finally face up to the challenge of China', Megan Khoo

As the New Year begins, Brits are gearing up after watching Rick Astley perform ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ and a spectacular fireworks display in London, and popping bubbly with family and friends. With the new start come resolutions to start going to the gym, eat healthier and save more money.

As we head into an election year, the Conservative Party would benefit from crafting its own resolutions, and I don’t mean eating carrots rather than crisps. If the Conservative Party has any chance of winning, or at least leaving a legacy for the next government, a 2024 roadmap is needed, particularly with regard to how the British Government navigates the “epoch-defining and systemic challenge posed by China under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) across almost every aspect of national life and government policy.”

During a Foreign Affairs Committee oral evidence session in 2022, Bob Seely told Liz Truss, then Foreign Secretary: “with respect, we have been repeatedly promised a China strategy, which would be a really important part of the Government’s foreign policy going forward. We have been waiting for it. We have been promised it for over a year and there have been statements made to that effect.”

Charles Parton of the Royal United Services Institute echoed Seely in last year’s Intelligence and Security Committee’s report on China, pursuant to sections two and three of the Justice and Security Act 2013, stating: “there is no unified voice within Government about what our China strategy is… not only do you need a strategy but you actually need people to know what the strategy is and to follow it, and you need the Chinese to know what your strategy is – and none of that applies.”

Yet Britain is still waiting for its clear, comprehensive China strategy today.

The Conservative Party should not only devote its energy to door knocking and cold calling as we ring in the new year, but make a plan to combat the threat of the CCP, which has stepped beyond the UK’s doorstep and continues to infiltrate businesses, higher education institutions and technology companies.

The Conservatives’ China strategy should prioritise examining potentially risky links between British and Chinese or Hong Kong businesses. 2023 was a year of increased diplomatic exchanges between British and Chinese or Hong Kong officials and, although dialogue is needed between the UK and China, the CCP continues to commit systematic human rights violations which cannot be ignored. The Conservative Party must lead Britain by being clear-eyed about the risks of doing business connected to or within China or Hong Kong to protect its domestic economy and national security.

And Britain must honour its recent G7 commitment to “de-risk” from China.  In the Integrated Review Refresh of 2023, the Government identified the London Metals Exchange (LME), which is the “world centre for the trading of industrial metals,” as one of Britain’s strategic “strengths.”

However, the Review failed to mention that the LME was bought by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), of which the Hong Kong Government is the largest shareholder, for £1.4 billion in 2012. In 2024, the Government should advise the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to expand their ongoing investigation of the LME to consider its current ownership, and determine whether it is apt for HKEX to own the LME.

The Government should also closely monitor the proposed merger between Three Mobile and Vodafone, which would allow Three’s owner CK Hutchinson, which is owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, to access the mobile phone data of 27 million customers as well as nearly half of the radio frequencies afforded to mobile providers in the UK. The UK Government must take seriously and respond to the calls to block the merger on competition and national security grounds in 2024.

In 2023, Hong Kong Watch found that Hong Kongers who have relocated to the UK under the British National (Overseas) visa scheme are being denied access to approximately £2.2 billion worth of their Mandatory Provident Funds (MPF), which is a compulsory retirement savings scheme for the people of Hong Kong. HSBC is a major MPF trustee headquartered in London, with assets totalling £32 billion or around 30 percent of the MPF market. In 2024, the Government should advise the Home Department to demand a formal commitment from HSBC and other UK-based MPF providers to honour early withdrawal requests from Hong Kongers on the BN(O) scheme who intend to obtain an indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

The MPF of Hong Kongers on the BN(O) visa scheme, as well as Hong Kongers seeking asylum in the UK, must be prioritised in the Conservatives’ China strategy. Such action includes granting asylum to 22-year-old Tony Chung, one of the youngest Hong Kong pro-democracy activists to be convicted under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law in Hong Kong, who arrived in Britain on 27 December to seek asylum after enduring months of “deep surveillance and immense pressure” after being released from prison in Hong Kong.

Last but not certainly not least, it is encouraging that the Foreign Secretary finally called for the release of a British citizen, Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper owner and activist, ahead of the start of his trial on 18 December 2023. Following the start of Lai’s trial, both the  Lords and Commons debated urgent questions regarding Lai, wherein Ministers affirmed that the Government will continue to support him and his family as well as press for his consular access.

However, Rishi Sunak has yet to say Lai’s name.

In 2024, the Conservative Party must urge the Prime Minister to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Lai and all other political prisoners in Hong Kong to set an obvious precedent for how the British Government advocates for its citizens detained abroad and engages with the Hong Kong Government.

The Conservative Party should also press the Hong Kong authorities to withdraw the arrest warrants and HK$1 million (£100,600) bounties against 13 exiled Hong Kongers, six of whom now reside in the UK. The Government must not tolerate the CCP targeting the very individuals who they have helped to escape from the oppression of the Chinese and Hong Kong governments.

From questionable business connections, withheld pensions savings, Lai’s trial in Hong Kong, and the issuance of six arrest warrants and bounties against Hong Kongers in the UK, 2023 was a busy yet confused year for UK-China relations.

As we enter 2024, the Government must re-examine the UK’s relationship with China and formalise a single comprehensive strategy on UK-China relations to guide the Conservatives and whichever party wins the next general election. The UK cannot afford to have another complacent nor delayed year when it comes to China as the Year of the Dragon lingers at its door.

This article was published in Conservative Home on 4 January 2024.