China

The line between their diplomatic staff and their intelligence agents is pretty blurry,” said Ed Arnold, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, who added that China’s tactic seemed to be expanding its ‘human intelligence” capability. “They are all paid by the state and any one of them could have that dual-hat responsibility. Take cultural attachés: the Communist Party is all about culture. It’s a good assumption that most of these staff, if either not fully trained members of Chinese intelligence, are certainly tasked with providing information.” Arnold said it was the scale of the Chinese presence that was unusual. “The way that the Chinese operate, whether it’s diplomacy or intelligence gathering, is at a scale. It’s a volume game. The more people you have the more contact you can have and the greater chances of success are.”

The Chinese Communist Party sees itself in a war with you and with us. That war is not so much a trade war. It's actually a war between economic systems and above all a science and technology war....

There are things that both sides find it important to say in public. But I think it does not affect the ongoing substance of the [bilateral] dialogue,” said Andrew Cainey, senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. “The UK’s balanced approach towards China has been there for a while. What has not been there is the consistent execution through meetings, engagement, and through specific guidance to companies and universities on how to work productively and securely with China.”