The government has put a spotlight on the cyber security threat it believes China poses to the UK following months of growing concerns around Beijing.
Deputy PM Oliver Dowden announced the UK’s response in parliament on Monday afternoon, in a marked shift in Britain’s approach to the country.
Here’s what you need to know.
What has Dowden said today?
Dowden blamed China for the cyber-attacks on the UK’s Electoral Commission which took place in August 2021 – and explained how the UK plans to respond.
The incident was only revealed to the public last year.
At the time, the Commission said unspecified “hostile actors” gained access to copies of the electoral registers and broke into its emails and “control systems”.
That means the hackers had details about 40 million voters, and 43 individuals including MPs and peers.
However, the officials made it clear that this did not have an impact on any elections, or any voter’s registration status.
Dowden told the Commons that the government has sanctioned two individuals and one company linked to the China state-affiliated group APT31.
He said: “The UK will not tolerate malicious cyber activity targeting our democratic institutions. It is an absolute priority for the UK Government to protect our democratic system and values.”
PM Rishi Sunak said earlier today that China is “the greatest state-based challenge to our national security”.
He said: “China represents an economic threat to our security and an epoch-defining challenge. So it is right we take steps to protect ourselves.”
However, he once again stopped short of describing China as a “threat” to the UK, as has been demanded by former Tory leader and arch-Beijing critic Iain Duncan Smith.
Why is this so significant?
It’s a major change from the UK’s previous approach to China.
Less than a decade ago, in 2015 when David Cameron was leading the government, the UK attempted to welcome a “Golden Age” with Beijing in 2015.
But, this relationship has gradually fallen apart.
Last year, the government said Chinese spies were targeting UK officials in politics, defence and business, and the head of MI5 claimed China was carrying out an espionage campaign on an “epic scale”.
The Chinese embassy said these were “groundless accusations”.
MI5 has since said it is running seven times as many investigations into Chinese activity as it did in 2018 – and has more scheduled.
However, the government is treading a fine line – it does not want to scupper relations completely.
“We have to be grown-up and pragmatic about our relationship with China,” minister Andrew Bowie told ITV News on Monday.
Referring to the huge amount of investment the UK receives from the Asian country, he said: “That means looking at each of these investments [from China] in the round, on a case-by-case basis, ensuring that our security and our individual liberties and freedoms are not undermined by any of the investments that are under way.”
China is also a fellow member of the UN Security Council – and the UK already has tensions with another member of the six-nation panel, Russia.
China already fought back last week, after the UK and other Western nations criticised its growing security laws for Hong Kong.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian already called for the UK to “stop spreading false information and take a responsible attitude to jointly maintain peace and security in cyberspace”.
Is it just the UK which is worried about China?
No – across the pond, US politicians are getting increasingly concerned about the possibility of Chinese interference.
The social media platform TikTok could be banned in the States soon, unless its China-based owner ByteDance sells it to someone else.
Politicians fear ByteDancer could share user data with China’s authoritarian government, after Beijing unveiled new national security laws which force organisations to help with intelligence gathering.
TikTok says there is no Chinese state ownership within ByteDance, while Beijing told the US the ban would “come back to bite the United States”.