China should not be described as a ‘foe’ – but is a ‘challenge’, says Kemi Badenoch
China should not be described as a “foe” or a “threat” but it should be regarded as a “challenge”, a cabinet minister has said – following allegations a Chinese spy infiltrated parliament.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said the claims were an “extremely serious concern” but we “shouldn’t be using language that makes people scared”.
It comes after two men were arrested under the Official Secrets Act amid reports a parliamentary researcher spied for China.
The researcher, who is in his 20s, is understood to have had links to security minister Tom Tugendhat, foreign affairs committee chairwoman Alicia Kearns and other senior Tory MPs.
The incident has thrown a spotlight on the government’s stance towards China.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has sought to adopt a more diplomatic stance towards the country than some of the more hawkish members of his cabinet and party, who want China to be officially classified as a threat.
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Asked whether China should be described as a threat, Ms Badenoch told Sky News: “I would define it as a challenge.
“I define China as a challenge because certainly from my job as business secretary working on international trade in particular, we see at international level just how significant China is, impacting the economies of countries all around the world.
“I was at the G20 two weeks ago – there were significant difficulties between China and Japan. There were difficult conversations between China and India. So I think across the world, China is becoming a very, very significant challenge.”
Pressed on whether China should be described as a “friend or a foe”, she replied: “We certainly should not be describing China as a foe – but we can describe it as a challenge.
“I don’t think we should be careless in terms of how we speak about other countries when these sorts of things happen.”
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PM confronts China’s premier
The business secretary rejected suggestions the government was “putting our safety behind the possibility of trade deals”, saying: “Well first of all, we are certainly not doing any trade deals with China.”
She said the UK’s approach is “the same as our allies in the US, Canada, Australia” and the UK is “not doing anything that’s out of the ordinary”.
“Obviously, Chinese people are different from the Chinese government and it is important to be diplomatic,” she said.
“We shouldn’t be using language that makes people scared. We need to be giving them confidence, and I’m very confident in our security services and in the work that the government is doing on economic security and investment screening.”
Mr Sunak met Chinese premier Li Qiang, who is attending the G20 summit in India in place of President Xi Jinping, on the fringes of the gathering’s final session on Sunday morning, where he said he raised his “very strong concern” about interference with parliamentary democracy which was “obviously unacceptable”.
It was the “right approach” to talk face-to -face with China’s premier, he said.
“Where there are areas of disagreement… I’d rather be in the room directly expressing my concerns, and that’s what I did today.”
The arrests were made in March and first revealed by The Sunday Times. Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, which oversees espionage-related offences, are investigating.
Ms Badenoch said it was “significant” the prime minister raised the issue with the Chinese premier this weekend.
“He spoke about his very serious concerns and that’s why it’s important to be able to have the engagement so that you can speak face-to-face and say exactly what it is that we think, in a way that will have an impact,” she added.
The Chinese embassy in London issued a statement yesterday in which it described this incident as “completely fabricated” and “nothing but a malicious slander”. It urged Britain’s lawmakers to “stop anti-China political manipulation”.
Read more:
How worried should we be about Chinese ‘spying’ in parliament?
James Cleverly defends first China trip by foreign secretary in five years as MPs call for openness on policy
Labour’s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, claimed security services warned about the dangers of spying “some time ago”.
She pointed to the “damning” report from the security and intelligence committee in July which said the government had “no strategy” to deal with China.
“We think there has to be a comprehensive strategy towards the risks, the challenges, and the threats from other states to our national security,” she said.
Asked if she believed China was a friend or foe, she said: “Well, the relationship is clearly complex.
“There are serious issues around the human rights abuses in China. There are serious issues around their approach and their role across the world. And we also have this trading relationship, as we’ve seen the rise of China. We have to deal with that. But in particular, we have to make sure we protect our own national security. That has to come first.”
Politics
European leaders to meet in Ukraine for ‘coalition of the willing’ talks – and issue call to Russia
Sir Keir Starmer will join other European leaders in Kyiv on Saturday for talks on the “coalition of the willing”.
The prime minister is attending the event alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, recently-elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
It will be the first time the leaders of the four countries will travel to Ukraine at the same time – on board a train to Kyiv – with their meeting hosted by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Follow latest updates on the Ukraine war
Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz travelling in the saloon car of a special train to Kiev. Pic: Reuters
Military officers from around 30 countries have been involved in drawing up plans for the coalition, which would provide a peacekeeping force in the event of a ceasefire being agreed between Russia and Ukraine.
Ahead of the meeting on Saturday, Sir Keir, Mr Macron, Mr Tusk and Mr Merz released a joint statement voicing support for Ukraine and calling on Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire.
Sir Keir and Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting in March. Pic: AP
“We reiterate our backing for President Trump’s calls for a peace deal and call on Russia to stop obstructing efforts to secure an enduring peace,” they said.
“Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace.”
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The leaders said they were “ready to support peace talks as soon as possible”.
But they warned that they would continue to “ratchet up pressure on Russia’s war machine” until Moscow agrees to a lasting ceasefire.
“We are clear the bloodshed must end, Russia must stop its illegal invasion, and Ukraine must be able to prosper as a safe, secure and sovereign nation within its internationally recognised borders for generations to come,” their statement added.
“We will continue to increase our support for Ukraine.”
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The European leaders are set to visit the Maidan, a central square in Ukraine’s capital where flags represent those who died in the war.
They are also expected to host a virtual meeting for other leaders in the “coalition of the willing” to update them on progress towards a peacekeeping force.
This force “would help regenerate Ukraine’s armed forces after any peace deal and strengthen confidence in any future peace”, according to Number 10.
Politics
The ‘tricky balancing act’ facing Starmer over US trade deal – and the real challenge to come
If you want a very visual representation of the challenges of transatlantic diplomacy in 2025, look no further than Oslo City Hall.
Its marbled mural-clad walls played home to a European military summit on Friday.
In December – as it does every year – it will host the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. It’s an award Donald Trump has said he deserves to win.
But while the leaders gathering in the Norwegian capital may not say it publicly, they all have a very different perspective to the US president on how to win the peace – particularly when it comes to Ukraine.
Sir Keir Starmer at a summit in Oslo. Pic: PA
So far, Sir Keir Starmer has managed to paper over these foreign policy gaps between the US and Europe with warm words and niceties.
But squaring the two sides off on trade may be more difficult.
The US-UK deal announced on Thursday contained no obvious red flags that could scupper deeper trade links with the EU.
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PM defends UK-US trade deal
However, that’s in part because it was more a reaction and remedy to Mr Trump’s tariff regime than a proactive attempt to meld the two countries together.
Laced with party-political venom, yes, but the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is getting at something when she says this agreement is “not even a trade deal, it’s a tariff deal and we are in a worse position now than we were six weeks ago”.
There may be more to come though.
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How good is the UK-US deal?
The government will talk up the possible benefits, but there are risks too.
Take the Digital Services Tax – much hated by the Trump White House as an unfair levy on US tech firms.
Despite the apparent pitch-rolling from the government, that was left untouched this week.
But asked to rule out changes in the future, the prime minister was non-committal, simply saying the current deal “doesn’t cover that”.
Read more:
Key details of UK-US trade deal
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For trade expert David Henig, the potential flashpoints in the transatlantic Venn diagram Downing Street is trying to draw around food standards, digital regulation and services.
“It is a tricky balancing act, at this stage it looks like the UK will go more with the EU on goods regulations, but perhaps a little bit more with the US on services regulations,” he said.
For veterans of the post-2016 Brexit battles, this may all sound like Labour embracing the Boris Johnson-era mantra of “cakeism” – or trying to have it both ways.
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It’s ironic indeed, given Sir Keir is a politician who supported the Remain campaign and then called for a second referendum.
But what matters now is what works – not for Downing Street but for the swathes of voters who have abandoned Labour since they took office.
That’s why the prime minister was once again trying to humanise this week’s trade deals.
These are agreements, he said, that would be measured in the “many thousands of jobs” they would safeguard across the country.
That’s the real challenge now, taking the work done in the marbled halls of the world’s capitals and convincing people at home why it matters to them.
A group of Democratic senators has reportedly sent a letter to leadership at the US Department of Justice and the Treasury Department expressing concerns about US President Donald Trump’s ties to cryptocurrency exchange Binance and potential conflicts of interest in regulating the industry.
According to a May 9 Bloomberg report, Democratic senators asked Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to report on the steps Binance had taken as part of its November 2023 plea agreement with US authorities, amid reports that Trump and his family had deepened connections with the exchange.
That settlement saw Binance pay more than $4 billion as part of a deal with the Justice Department, Treasury, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and had then-CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao step down.
However, since Trump won the presidency in 2024, many lawmakers have accused the president of corruption from profiting off crypto while being in a position to influence laws and regulations over the industry.
Trump has launched his own memecoin — which earns the project millions of dollars in transaction fees — and offered the top tokenholders the opportunity to attend an exclusive dinner in Washington, DC. His family-backed crypto venture World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, MGX, would settle a $2 billion investment in Binance using the platform’s USD1 stablecoin.
“Our concerns about Binance’s compliance obligations are even more pressing given recent reports that the company is using the Trump family’s stablecoin to partner with foreign investment companies,” the senators said in the letter, according to Bloomberg.
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Stablecoin bill fails to pass the US Senate
The letter came less than 24 hours after some of the same senators blocked a crucial vote on a bill to regulate stablecoins, named the GENIUS Act. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who reportedly signed the letter and opposed moving forward on the stablecoin bill, suggested the Senate should not be aligned with “facilitat[ing] this kind of corruption” from Trump.
Bessent said the Senate “missed an opportunity” by not passing the stablecoin bill, but did not directly address any of the concerns over Trump’s crypto interests. It’s unclear if or when the chamber could consider another vote on the bill.
In an April 23 report, the nonpartisan organization State Democracy Defenders Action said roughly 40% of Trump’s net worth was tied to crypto. The group noted that the GENIUS Act, in its current version, “would not prevent President Trump from using his executive powers to establish a regulatory environment and enforcement agenda that prioritizes his personal enrichment over the broader interests of US stakeholders.”
Amid the concerns with the stablecoin and proposed market structure bills, Zhao reportedly applied for a federal pardon from Trump. Though the former CEO already served four months in prison, a pardon for his felony charge could allow him to get more involved with the crypto industry through a management position.
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