UK calls China a major challenge but an essential economic partner
[June 25, 2025] By
JILL LAWLESS
LONDON (AP) — China’s attempts to spy, destabilize and disrupt Britain’s
economy and democracy have grown, but Beijing is still a vital economic
partner for the U.K., the government said Tuesday.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said “China’s power is an inescapable
fact” and freezing relations with the world’s second biggest economy is
“not an option.” He spoke to lawmakers as he outlined findings from the
government’s “China audit.”
“China is our third biggest trading partner, our universities’ second
largest source of international students. China will continue to play a
vital role in supporting the U.K.’s secure growth,” Lammy said.
The Labour Party government pledged to conduct an in-depth examination
of U.K.-China relations after it was elected almost a year ago, in an
effort to balance the country's economic interests and its security.
Many details of the review will remain classified for security reasons,
Lammy said.
Its conclusions were summarized in a document outlining the U.K.
government’s broader national security strategy. It said that “instances
of China’s espionage, interference in our democracy and the undermining
of our economic security have increased in recent years.”
Yet the government resisted pressure from China hawks in Parliament to
label China a threat on a par with Russia. The security review called it
a “geostrategic challenge” but also an essential player in tackling
major issues such as climate change, global health and economic
stability.
“We will seek a trade and investment relationship that supports secure
and resilient growth, and boosts the U.K. economy,” the government said.
“Yet there are several major areas, such as human rights and
cybersecurity, where there are stark differences and where continued
tension is likely.”
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British Foreign Secretary David Lammy talks to journalists in
Antalya, southern Turkey, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra,
file)
 Opposition Conservative Party
foreign affairs spokeswoman Priti Patel said the government was
showing “signs of naivety” about China. Another Conservative
lawmaker, Harriet Cross, branded Beijing “at best unreliable and at
worst hostile.”
U.K.-China relations have chilled since the
short-lived “golden era” announced by then-Prime Minister David
Cameron in 2015, after a series of spying and cyberespionage
allegations, Beijing’s crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong, a
former British colony, and China’s support for Russia in the Ukraine
war.
There was no immediate comment from China on the review.
China was one of many challenges identified in a review that the
government said marked “a hardening and a sharpening of our approach
to national security” in an increasingly dangerous world.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government has pledged, along with
other NATO members, to increase spending on security to 5% of gross
domestic product by 2035. The total includes 3.5% on defense and
1.5% on broader security and resilience.
The U.K. currently spends 2.3% of national income on defense and
says that will rise to 2.6% by 2027.
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