Snippets and gleanings - bull in a China shop

Me old China
Oliver Dowden - you know him, sandy-haired geezer, bit of a nonentity, sits on the government front bench  - anyway, he's the Deputy Prime Minister and this afternoon he warned the House of Commons of China's "cumulative attempts to interfere with the United Kingdom's democracy", including the hacking of the Electoral Commission in 2021, potentially affecting tens of millions of people. Funny, I could've sworn the Tory government did that in its Elections Act 2022.

And that's not all
David 'call me Lord' Cameron was also busy back-tracking on his previous pro-China stance. You might remember him in 2015 enjoying (or pretending to) a pint of Greene King IPA down the Dog & Duck with his old bezzie, Xi Jinping, President of China. Well, that was then and this is now. As Foreign Secretary he's been persuaded that China now poses a major threat to the UK's economy, democracy and way of life. Funny, I could've sworn successive Tory governments had been doing that since 2010.

No, seriously
Dave - sorry, Lord - has obviously had his ear bent on the subject by that other Tory heavyweight (sic) Sinophobe, Iain Duncan Smith. IBS - sorry, IDS - is miffed because China has put him on some hitlist or other of foreign capitalist running dogs. Frankly, I'm surprised China even knows who the Rt Hon Member for Chingford and Woodford Green is when most of his constituents don't. But he'll clearly need to be extra careful when ringing his local takeaway for the regular Friday night chop suey and egg fried. Could've been worse, though.  He could've upset Vladimir Putin.

Labouring the point
And now comes news that His Majesty's Official Opposition has lined up to put the boot in too. At the end of last week Catherine West, Shadow Asia Minister (who knew?), travelled to Beijing as part of a delegation of British MPs for meetings with senior Chinese government figures and businesses. She met Wang Huning, a member of China’s seven-member politburo, and the vice-foreign minister, Deng Li and warned them Labour would take "a strong, clear-eyed and consistent approach to China". Given the UK's £33.6 billion trade deficit with China, I bet they were quaking in their boots.

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