West Must Stand United In The Face Of Malign Forces

Yesterday the House of Commons voted unanimously to declare that China is guilty of carrying out crimes against humanity and genocide, over its treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang province. China has already sanctioned a number of MPs who have campaigned on this and it is good that the Commons as a whole has stood behind them.

- Stephen Pollard

China is a totalitarian state in which dissent is crushed ruthlessly, as we are seeing in Hong Kong, and in which genocide is pursued brazenly. And it poses a direct threat to our way of life.

But it is far from the only threat. Today we face any number of dangers, from Islamist extremism and state-sponsored Iranian terror to a Russian state which poses the most immediate menace to our safety. And that’s without even considering the likes of North Korea.

Earlier this week it emerged that the Government intends to introduce a bill to counter-espionage and underhand action by hostile states such as Russia and China. Anyone working on behalf of a foreign government in Britain would have to register their work here or face criminal charges. And the Official Secrets Act will be updated to deal with people who work to undermine our safety, such as cyber hackers working for foreign states.