The Foreign Affairs Committee today launches an inquiry into the
Government's China Audit.
Although China is the UK's fifth largest trading partner, the UK
Government has, in recent years, described China as an
“epoch-defining and systemic challenge”. Last November, the
Foreign Secretary told the Committee that we need a consistent
approach to China.
The Government launched the China Audit in late 2024 in order to
understand how the UK can respond to the challenges and
opportunities China poses. However, the precise remit of the
Audit has not yet been published.
This inquiry will examine the process and outcomes of the China
Audit, and how these support UK national interests. It will also
explore the Government's long-term approach to China, and how it
intends to ensure consistency across Government, business and
academia towards engagement with China.
The deadline for submitting written evidence is 5 May
2025.
The Committee welcomes written evidence that responds to
one or more of the following questions:
Audit process and immediate outcomes:
- What evidence base should the Government have drawn upon when
conducting the China Audit?
- What would the most useful output be from the Audit, such as
a public strategy or a risk assessment framework?
- What metrics should be used to measure the Audit's
implementation and overall success?
- What are the merits for the Government in publishing an
unclassified China strategy? What would the implications be of
publishing a strategy?
- What roles should the FCDO's Arm's Length Bodies play in
implementing the FCDO's China strategy and the outcomes of the
Audit? And what roles sit in other parts of Government
(e.g. other Government departments or agencies)?
Long-term implementation of the Audit and wider China
policy:
- How should the Government consider and assess trade-offs in
the UK-China relationship? For example, how should the Government
seek to balance its growth agenda and environmental goals vs.
security and human rights concerns in China?
- What should the Government's objectives be for the UK-China
relationship in the short term and the long term?
- In which areas can, and should, the Government engage with
China? Where should the Government draw red lines?
- How effective is the Government's current ‘Challenge,
Compete, Cooperate' strategy towards China? What are the gaps and
limits of this?
- How should the Government assess UK dependencies on China?
Where should the Government focus its efforts on strengthening UK
security and resilience?
- How might greater UK engagement with China affect other UK
alliances?
- Does the FCDO, as well as other Government departments and
agencies, have sufficient expertise and resources to manage the
multifaceted UK-China relationship?
- Where should the Government focus its efforts when
strengthening ‘China capabilities'?
- How effective is cross-Government coordination on
China?
- How should the Government ensure coherence and consistency
across departments, as well as in the public sector, academia and
the private sector?
Each submission should be no longer than 3,000 words and contain
a brief introduction about the author. Submissions should be in
malleable format such as MS Word (not PDFs) with no use of
colour, logos or photos. Further guidance is available on
our Written Evidence
Guidance.
