Select committee: International Relations and Defence Committee

Conclusion 45

1st Report - The UK and China's security and trade relationship: A strategic void Published 10 Sep 2021 Paragraph 241

International Relations and Defence Committee The UK’s security and trade relationship with China All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

Conclusion (the committee's words)

China is a rapidly growing military power with an increasingly assertive policy towards its neighbours and adjacent waters. It has an agenda to secure the integration of Taiwan into its jurisdiction; to secure all waters, islands and reefs within the ‘nine dash line’ within its sovereign territory; and to challenge the Sino-Indian Actual Line of Control. Even if not planned, there is a strong risk that future rhetoric from China will at some point provoke a major conflict. The ‘tilt’ to the Indo-Pacific implies that the UK will be less able to isolate itself from such an event. It needs to carefully consider its contingency plans. With the future presence of the Royal Navy in the South and East China Seas, it is not impossible that a UK naval vessel (rather than the US fleet) could be used by China as the test of their sovereignty, and therefore the start of such a conflict.

From: International Relations and Defence Committee, 1st Report - The UK and China's security and trade relationship: A strategic void, paragraph 241, 10 September 2021

Government response

Letter from Minister Milling to Baroness Anelay, on the Committee’s follow-up letter to the Government’s response to the UK-China report, 9 February 2022

The government responded to the whole report on 22 February 2022 (deadline 17 November 2021).

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Government Response to the Committee's The UK's Security and Trade Relationship with China report

Published 23 November 2021.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government responds to the Committee's report by restating the approach set out in the Integrated Review, describing China as a "systemic competitor" and setting out how it will engage, trade and protect its security, without committing to the single China strategy the Committee called for.

On the call for a single China strategy, the government points to the Integrated Review and says the National Security Council "continues to provide clear direction". It says it will not publish information that could harm national security.
On China expertise, it says it "will continue to invest in China capability in line with the Integrated Review" and notes an additional £3million dedicated in 2020/21.
On trade, it says it is in the national interest to trade with China but "important we avoid strategic dependency". It says the National Security and Investment Act is "country agnostic" and will come into full force on 4 January 2022.
On the Indo-Pacific, it describes HMS Tamar and HMS Spey as "permanently stationed in the region", to be joined by a Littoral Response Group from 2023 and Type 31 frigates by the end of the decade.

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