Ahead of today's session with the Foreign Secretary, the Foreign
Affairs Committee has published written
evidence received as part of its inquiry into the China
audit.
The evidence includes submissions from leading academics and
think tanks, industry bodies and Foreign Office arms-length
bodies such as the British Council.
Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Dame MP, said:
“We were promised a ‘full and comprehensive audit on the breadth
of the UK's relationship with China'. Instead, we were given
three paragraphs on page 39 of the National Security Strategy.
Parliament and the public have been left with more questions than
answers.
“In the absence of a published China audit, we are placing the
first tranche of written evidence we received as part of our
inquiry into the UK's China audit into the public domain today.
“At the moment we are operating in the dark. We understand the
need for sensitive matters to be kept classified, but the
Government must get the balance right.
“Presumably there isn't just an audit, there is a strategy coming
from that. We haven't seen the audit and we don't know what's in
the strategy – which should apply to government, local
government, business, universities and particularly the
technology sector.
“Surely, we all need to know this so that we can act together in
our approach towards China. The Government says the purpose
of the audit was to ensure that we have a consistent attitude
towards – how can we do that if we don't know what it is?
“I look forward to putting these questions, and more, to the
Foreign Secretary later today.”
