Promise of Chinese funding can never trump our security

THE warning signs have been there for years. Anyone with an interest in ensuring the security of the country can see China is no real friend of the UK.

- Duncan Barkes

Despite this, we have a Labour Government tying itself in knots by trying not to offend this threatening global superpower - because it remains desperate to ensure great dollops of Chinese cash continue to come into the UK to perk up our ailing economy.

Of course we need a decent relationship with China, but not to the detriment of our national security. Their hostility towards the UK is plain, given how China has treated politicians who dare to criticise its regime.

Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, along with past and current Tory MPs Nusrat Ghani, Tom Tugendhat, Neil O’Brien and Tim Loughton, have all been banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macao.

And it’s not just Tory critics, either. Earlier this year, Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse was barred from entering Hong Kong to visit her grandson.

No official reason was given, but the MP is a member of Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and said she suspected her involvement in the group, along with her scrutiny of China’s record on democracy and human rights, was behind the decision.