Britain’s Foreign and Defence Secretary David Lammy and John Healey vow not to be complacent on China

Britain’s Foreign and Defence Secretaries David Lammy and John Healey have vowed they won’t be complacent about the threat China poses in an exclusive and rare joint interview with The Nightly.

But the Foreign Secretary declined to state whether they would place China on the Enhanced Tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, which like Australia’s register, would require those working for the CCP to disclose a wider range of activities.

The pair granted The Nightly their first-ever joint print interview since winning office, following the AUKMIN talks with their Australian counterparts Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong at Lancaster House in London this week.

The subject of Chinese political interference has rocketed to the front pages of the British press following the sensational revelations that an alleged Chinese spy had infiltrated the Royal Family by cultivating Prince Andrew, who had already been shelved from public life over his association with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Yang Tengbo — who set up a Chinese version of Prince Andrew’s Pitch at the Palace scheme and has been photographed with former prime ministers Theresa May and David Cameron — denies spying for the CCP.

But he has been blocked by British authorities from ever re-entering the UK on national security grounds.

Mr Lammy said, like Australia, the UK would cooperate with China and challenge it when it must.

“Today is a day, sadly on which we are reminded that national security at this time is challenged by China,” the foreign secretary said.

Asked what consequences China could expect to face for the interference, Mr Lammy said he raised the matter of espionage with the Chinese during his trip to Beijing.

“They’re not consequence-free,” he said.

“We’ve just been pretty robust with China about dual-use Chinese technology that is being used in Ukraine for which we have issued sanctions.

“We have a mature and a consistent relationship where there are no surprises and China knows how we feel about the issues that go to the heart of our national security.”

But when pressed on whether or not China would be placed in the highest level of accountability required in the UK’s Australian-style foreign influence registration scheme (FIRS), Mr Lammy was non-committal.

“We’re working at pace on our FIRS but it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on which countries will be included,” he said.

“We’ll make that announcement as soon as we can.”

But Defence Secretary John Healey struck a stronger tone when he said, unprompted: “We will not be complacent about the challenge of China.”

“And these are not just matters of national security and political interference actions as the head of MI5 has recently warned,” he said.

“These are about the support and the link-up that China is providing to Russia to sustain its war in Ukraine.”

He said the presence of North Korean troops on the front line in Ukraine showed that the war had implications for the Indo-Pacific in an echo of the same warning issued by former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion.

“If Putin prevails in Ukraine then larger countries around the world will feel that they have greater impunity to try and redraw international boundaries by force,” Mr Healey said.

“And so what happens in Ukraine will have implications for the Indo-Pacific and that, from our discussions in the United States, is not lost on many in the American system of all parties.”

The China audit

Mr Lammy said Labour needed to be given time in office to be judged on its approach to China.

“Our new approach to China will be underpinned by an audit which we are undertaking,” he said.

“We have to give us some time in office before we can see the effect of our relationship.”

The fine details of Labour’s China audit remain opaque.

The Government won’t say who is conducting it or issue its terms of reference. Mr Lammy promised it would be released in the first half of next year.

There are concerns that the audit has already been pre-empted with the UK Labour government — which has pledged to lift Britain’s anaemic economic growth — taking a noticeably softer approach toward China than the last Conservative governments led by Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

UK Prime Minister Keir Stamer told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he wanted to deepen trade and investment when they met at the recent G20 meeting in Brazil.

And a flurry of British ministers are expected to visit Beijing in the new year to drum up Chinese investment.