US tells Britain: Kick out Chinese firms

The Telegraph: Britain should ban China from all of its critical infrastructure, a senior US official has suggested.

The source in Donald Trump’s administration warned that potential vulnerabilities in Britain and America’s key infrastructure were “a top concern of ours”, noting that the safety and security of the two countries was “closely linked”.

“Supply chain security is vital, particularly when you’re talking about Chinese tech,” the official said.

They did not single out a particular aspect of the UK’s national framework but said it was a cross-sector problem that required a coordinated, Government-wide respo

Using the example of a military base, the source said that however heavily fortified it was, “whether in the United States or the UK, [it] runs on electricity, water, rail transport”.

“Everything feeding into that is private industry and is privately run and is being targeted,” they added.

The Government’s stance on Beijing has come under intense scrutiny, with MI5 issuing a rare alert to MPs last week warning of foreign espionage efforts after the Westminster spy case collapsed.

Chinese investments in Britain have also triggered alarm, with companies linked to Beijing currently holding stakes in assets deemed critical to the country’s national security.

Chinese companies have invested heavily in universities, the steel industry and Heathrow airport, in which investors from Beijing hold a 10 per cent stake.

Beijing’s involvement in “any part of that critical infrastructure supply chain needs to be scrutinised extremely closely and work in a zero-trust atmosphere”, the US official noted.

“It’s just simply a threat to safety and security.”

Critics have accused Labour of prioritising trade ties over national security. On Monday, it emerged that Sir Keir Starmer met Li Qiang, the Chinese premier, at the G20 summit over the weekend.

The Government is also expected to greenlight China’s application for a new “super-embassy” within weeks – a move The Telegraph understands could trigger a lengthy legal challenge.

This could force ministers to disclose all relevant communications about the embassy to prove they did not intervene in the planning process.

The White House has previously said it was “deeply concerned” about the prospect of Beijing’s new embassy on the site of the Royal Mint Court, which is in close proximity to critical communication cables.

Ministers could also block a Chinese takeover of Thames Water amid fears that doing so would effectively hand China the ability to “switch off the taps.”

The Trump administration official warned on Monday that China is “an aggressive and capable adversary”, particularly when it comes to signals intelligence.

In Washington’s view, the biggest cyberthreat to the West was “overwhelmingly” from Beijing, they added.

“China is the most capable, [it] has been the most aggressive in this space,” the official continued, noting the scale of its resources and capability exceeded that of Russia, Iran or other hostile states.

The most “egregious” recent examples were two operations by Chinese state-sponsored actors – codenamed “Salt Typhoon” and “Volt Typhoon” – which are believed to have penetrated large swathes of critical US infrastructure, they said.

Ciaran Martin, the former head of cybersecurity at GCHQ, highlighted the same actors earlier this year when he described the “transformation” of Beijing’s capabilities as the most important shift in cyber threats to the West in more than a decade.

Data from the ONS suggest Chinese investment in the UK totalled around £4.3bn in 2023, although the total amount is estimated to be far higher given the opaque ownership structures of some companies linked to Beijing.

Sir Jeremy Fleming, the former head of GCHQ, told the BBC that Britain had been “far too free in allowing access to strategically important industries”, particularly in science and technology.

It is understood that the UK’s cybersecurity officials are working in close cooperation with their US counterparts and the other members of the Five Eyes alliance, which also includes Canada, Australia and New Zealand, to make key assets more resilient.

But with the threat growing at scale, Washington believes a more “proactive” approach is required to “collectively push back”.

“Just pure defence doesn’t get the job done,” the senior official noted.

Asked if the Trump administration was concerned about vulnerabilities in the UK’s systems, they replied: “I’m concerned about the critical infrastructure in the United States, I’m concerned about critical infrastructure in the UK, everywhere where it impacts people’s lives.

“Our safety and security is very, very closely linked. Many of the companies that service your critical infrastructure service ours, or are American companies.”

The Chinese Embassy said its government “has always required Chinese enterprises operating overseas to strictly comply with local laws and regulations”.