Rishi Sunak defends UK approach to China as ‘more robust’ than EU allies following criticism
The UK’s approach to China is “more robust” than its allies, Rishi Sunak has claimed, as he continues to face calls to use more aggressive language to describe Beijing in the wake of two cyberattacks.
The prime minister said suggestions the government was not taking strong action against China were “completely and utterly wrong”.
Mr Sunak defended the government’s stance towards China while appearing at the Liaison Committee on Tuesday afternoon, where he faced questions from parliament’s select committee chairs.
Business and Trade Committee chair Liam Byrne challenged Mr Sunak that where allies acted on China, the UK was merely “thinking about it”.
But Mr Sunak claimed such an assertion was false, saying: “Our approach to China is undoubtedly more robust than, I’d say, most of our allies, in fact, actually.
Politics live: Rishi Sunak asked if he’s part of ‘the deep state’ after Truss claims
“I am entirely confident that our approach to dealing with the risk that China poses is very much in line with our allies and in most cases goes further in protecting ourselves.”
Mr Sunak’s appearance at the committee came after the government blamed China “state-affiliated actors” for two “malicious” cyberattack campaigns in the UK.
Two incidents
Making a speech in the Commons, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden revealed the two incidents involved an attack in 2021 on the Electoral Commission – responsible for overseeing elections and political finance – alongside targeted attacks against China-sceptic MPs.
According to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the incident at the commission, discovered in 2022, saw the Electoral Roll compromised, including the names and addresses of tens of millions of voters.
But “reconnaissance activity” in 2021, targeting the accounts of former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative education minister Tim Loughton, crossbench peer Lord Alton of Liverpool and SNP MP Stewart McDonald was unsuccessful.
Are these MPs really parliament’s best interrogators?
Job done. The prime minister will be pleased with how that went. No news. No gaffes. And not too tetchy. To be blunt, it was dull.
The highlights were Mr Sunak’s clashes with Labour’s Dame Diana Johnson and the SNP’s Joana Cherry on the government’s Rwanda policy.
He didn’t like it when Ms Cherry asked if he was proud of telling Tory MPs to vote against preventing Afghans who supported British forces in Afghanistan from being deported to Rwanda.
The closest Mr Sunak came to making news was in his comments on the two big foreign stories of this week: the UN Israel-Hamas ceasefire vote and Chinese cyber-hacking.
He stressed the need for more aid into Gaza and agreed with Tory MP Stephen Crabb that the UN ceasefire resolution perhaps ought to have included criticism of Hamas.
And on China, he claimed the UK’s approach was more robust tan other countries, prompting a clash with Labour’s Liam Byrne, who disputed that claim.
To be fair, he did confirm that the public could “safely assume” the pensions triple-lock would remain in place throughout the next parliament if the Tories win the election.
But that was as good as it got. The prime minister even had the brass neck to say he deplored leaks when asked about reports about the chancellor’s national insurance cut ahead of this month’s budget.
The session had begun with the gentlest of questions from former Treasury minister Harriet Baldwin, who asked: “How’s the economic strategy going?” It was so bland it could have been a planted question.
And the hearing ended with a rambling chat with committee chairman Sir Bernard Jenkin about reforming parliament to encourage more young people to engage in politics. That got nowhere.
In just over 90 minutes, the prime minister got off extremely lightly. If these are parliament’s best interrogators, Mr Sunak can rest easy as he begins his Easter break.
The government has said the attack on parliamentarians was carried out by the APT31 – a “China state-affiliated” group but less is known about who bears responsibility for the attack on the commission
However, the NCSC says it is “highly likely compromised by a China state-affiliated cyber entity”.
‘Like an elephant giving birth to a mouse’
Mr Dowden announced sanctions against a front company, Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company, and two individuals, Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin, who are linked to APT31.
But the response was immediately met with derision from Tory MPs, including Sir Iain, who said Mr Dowden’s statement was “like an elephant giving birth to a mouse”.
MPs within Mr Sunak’s party have urged him to upgrade the UK assessment of China from an “epoch-defining challenge” to a “threat” – something Mr Dowden suggested could be on the cards.
During the Liaison Committee session the prime minister highlighted how the UK had removed Huawei equipment from their telecommunications networks while European allies had not, and said the EU had not placed restrictions on exports of sensitive technology to China.
Read more:
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He also argued that the UK was less dependent on China for trade than Australia, Korea, Japan, the US, and Germany and that there was a security agency dedicated to helping companies manage threats from states over espionage and IP threats.
China denial
China has firmly denied responsibility for the attacks and has accused the UK of “outright political manipulation”.
A spokesman said the UK had “falsely accused China of attempting to interfere with UK democracy”.
“We strongly urge the UK to immediately stop spreading false information about China, stop such self-staged, anti-China farces, and refrain from going further down the wrong path that leads only to failure.”
Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, faces a 20-year prison sentence as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking a severe penalty for his fraudulent activity.
The US DOJ on April 28 filed the government’s sentencing memorandum against Mashinsky, recommending a 20-year prison sentence due to his fraudulent actions leading to multibillion-dollar losses by Celsius customers.
The 97-page memo mentioned that Celsius users were unable to access approximately $4.7 billion in crypto assets after the platform halted withdrawals on June 12, 2022.
“The Court should sentence Alexander Mashinsky to twenty years’ imprisonment as just punishment for his years-long campaign of lies and self-dealing that left in its wake billions in losses and thousands of victimized customers,” the DOJ stated.
Mashinsky’s personal benefit was $48 million
In addition to listing massive investor losses resulting from the Celsius fraud, the DOJ mentioned that Mashinsky has personally profited from the fraudulent schemes in his role.
As part of his plea in December 2024, Mashinsky admitted that he was the leader of the criminal activity at Celsius, that his crimes resulted in losses in excess of $550 million, and that he personally benefited more than $48 million, the authority said.
The DOJ emphasized that Mashinsky’s guilty plea showed that his crimes were “not the product of negligence, naivete, or bad luck,” but rather the result of “deliberate, calculated decisions to lie, deceive, and steal in pursuit of personal fortune.”
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious prison move: Hodler’s Digest, April 20 – 26
The concept of a Russian ruble stablecoin received special attention at a major local crypto event, the Blockchain Forum in Moscow, with key industry executives reflecting on some of the core features a ruble-backed stablecoin might require.
Sergey Mendeleev, founder of the digital settlement exchange Exved and inactive founder of the sanctioned Garantex exchange, put forward seven key criteria for a potential “replica of Tether” in a keynote at the Blockchain Forum on April 23.
Mendeleev said a potential ruble stablecoin must have untraceable transactions and allow transfers without Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.
However, because one of the criteria also requires the stablecoin to comply with Russian regulations, he expressed skepticism that such a product could emerge soon.
The DAI model praised
Mendeleev proposed that a potential Russian “Tether replica” must be overcollateralized similarly to the Dai (DAI) stablecoin model, a decentralized algorithmic stablecoin that maintains its one-to-one peg with the US dollar using smart contracts.
“So, any person who buys it will understand that the contract is based on the assets that super-securitize it, not somewhere on some unknown accounts, but free to be checked by simple crypto methods,” he said.
Another must-have feature should be excess liquidity on both centralized and decentralized exchanges, Mendeleev said, adding that users must be able to exchange the stablecoin at any time they need.
According to Mendeleev, a viable ruble-pegged stablecoin also needs to offer non-KYC transactions, so users are not required to pass their data to start using it.
“The Russian ruble stablecoin should have the opportunity where people use it without disclosing their data,” he stated.
Related: Russia’s central bank, finance ministry to launch crypto exchange
In the meantime, users should be able to earn interest on holding the stablecoin, Mendelev continued, adding that offering this feature is available via smart contracts.
Russia opts for centralization
Mendeleev also suggested that a potential Russian version of Tether’s USDt (USDT) would need to feature untraceable and cheap transactions, while its smart contracts should not enable blocks or freezes.
The final criterion is that a potential ruble stablecoin would have to be regulated in accordance with the Russian legislation, which currently doesn’t look promising, according to Mendeleev.
“Once we put these seven points together […] then it would be a real alternative, which would help us at least compete with the solutions that are currently on the market,” he stated at the conference, adding:
“Unfortunately, from the point of view of regulation, we are currently going in the absolutely opposite direction […] We are going in the direction of absolute centralization, not in the direction of liberalization of laws, but consolidation of prohibitions.”
Possible solutions
While the regulatory side is not looking good, a potential Russian version of USDT is technically feasible, Mendeleev told Cointelegraph.
“Except for anonymous transactions, everything is easy to implement and has already been deployed by several projects, but it’s just not unified in one project yet,” he said.
The crypto advocate specifically referred to interesting opportunities by projects like the ruble-pegged A7A5 stablecoin, unblockable contracts at DAI, and others.
Related: Russian crypto exchange Mosca raided amid cash-to-crypto ban talks
Regulation is necessary but not enough, Mendeleev said, adding that the most difficult part is the trust of users who must see the ruble stablecoin as a viable alternative to major alternatives like USDT.
Recent reports suggest that the deputy head of Russia’s Finance Ministry’s financial policy department urged the government to develop ruble stablecoins.
Elsewhere, the Bank of Russia has continued to progress its central bank digital currency project, the digital ruble. According to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, the digital ruble is scheduled to be rolled out for commercial banks in the second half of 2025.
Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious prison move: Hodler’s Digest, April 20 – 26
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