A new report – co-written by Labour Campaign for Human Rights (LCHR) and the Labour Foreign Policy Group (LFPG) – has put forward a series of recommendations to increase awareness of CCP activities in Britain and disentangle the private sector from finance backed by the Chinese state.
The recent threat to British Steel – owned by conglomerate Jingye Group – triggered alarm over how Chinese companies leverage control within UK infrastructure. If the steel furnace in Scunthorpe had stopped operating, Britain would have been the only country in the G7 without the power to produce virgin steel domestically.
Luke Akehurst, Labour MP for North Durham, told PoliticsHome economic objectivies today should not be pursued in ways which “lead to insecurity tomorrow”.
“The public are rightly cautious about UK engagement with China under the CCP regime and the government should be too,” he said. “The upcoming ‘China audit’ is an opportunity for a new, clear-eyed approach to dealing with the CCP’s economic, political and geopolitical reach.”