UK China policy 'incoherent' and short on expertise, Ipac report finds
UK China policy is 'beset by incoherence' and lacks senior expertise, according to an audit published on Wednesday by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), which warns that past engagement with Beijing exposed Britain to interference risks without delivering the promised opportunities.
The door of a government office building in London seen from behind a visitor waiting under an overcast sky
A report published on Wednesday by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), an international grouping of China-sceptic legislators with members from all of the UK's major parties, concludes that the UK's China policy is "beset by incoherence" and suffers from a lack of senior expertise.
The audit warns that past UK engagement with Beijing has often exposed the country to the risks of interference without delivering the opportunities that were promised, and says the power imbalance with China, the world's second largest economy, is further compounded by muddled policy and weak engagement.
The UK's approach to China is "beset by incoherence" and plagued by a lack of senior expertise.
The report also frames the terms of any future relationship, stating that successful UK engagement with China must always be framed by an understanding that the PRC is an inherently hostile authoritarian state.
No Mandarin at the top of government
The expertise gap is illustrated by a visiting Chinese delegation cited in the audit, which noted that no one who engaged with Beijing at a senior level in government was a Mandarin speaker or had significant experience living in China.
Ipac says the problem is not an absence of knowledge but its organisation:
- British expertise on China exists, according to the audit.
- That expertise is siloed.
- It is not translated into capability.
Engagement with red lines, not disengagement
The report rejects withdrawal as a strategy, saying disengagement from China is not an option, and instead advocates clearly defined red lines on critical infrastructure, frontier technologies and human rights.
Its further recommendations include:
- Better institutional coordination.
- Strengthened use of national security tools.
- Diversification of supply chains.
The audit also identifies emerging technologies such as AI as posing new challenges in terms of disinformation and surveillance capabilities.
Climate: the low-risk area for cooperation
The climate crisis is identified as a low-risk area for cooperation and alignment with Beijing.
The audit cautions, however, that climate targets as set will not be met without cooperation with China, and without accepting medium-term dependence, including on supply chains it describes as tainted.
Experts welcome the language focus
Kerry Brown, a former diplomat and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, welcomed the report's emphasis on language skills, saying it was "very welcome" that there was an understanding that better language skills were needed to deal with China.
Brown added that the critical issue is lived experience in China: "You can't teach really important things in a classroom; you can only go and learn them through daily life." He noted such experience is difficult and unsupported at present.
He also offered a caveat, saying some Ipac members are "really keen on promoting this very security-oriented idea that going to China is in some ways opening you up to exposure."
Former security minister Tom Tugendhat endorsed the report, calling it "a clear-eyed and realistic take on the defining foreign policy problem of this century, filling a gap left by years of policy neglect."
The Guardian has contacted the UK government and the Chinese embassy in London for comment.
