The clear threat from China to the UK 17 October 2025

China represents the most significant strategic threat to the United Kingdom since the Second World War. This threat is multifaceted – economic, ideological and systemic – and is ultimately aimed at reshaping global power in ways that challenge British national security, economic resilience and diplomatic influence.

Economic Challenge

China’s economic model is not grounded in free market principles but in state directed mercantilism, designed to dominate global industries and create long term dependencies. Key features include:

• Industrial Espionage – Acquisition of Western companies and technologies through both legal and illicit means, including cyber operations and human intelligence.
• State Subsidies – Massive financial support to domestic firms, enabling them to outcompete global rivals regardless of market efficiency.
• Market Saturation – Export driven overproduction that floods global markets, undercuts competitors, and erodes industrial bases in countries like the UK.

Implication – British industries – especially in advanced manufacturing, green technology, and defence – face existential risks from unfair competition and intellectual property theft.

Ideological and Systemic Challenge

China’s leadership rejects the liberal international order established after 1945. President Xi Jinping has called for a “new global order” that reflects the “realities of the new era” – a euphemism for a world where:

• Authoritarian governance replaces democratic norms.
• State-led capitalism supplants market liberalism.
• Sovereignty and hierarchy override international law and multilateral cooperation.

Through initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and BRICS+ – China is constructing a parallel global system that undermines Western influence.

Implication – A world remade in Beijing’s image would marginalise British diplomacy, weaken democratic alliances and erode the rules based international system.

Strategic Challenge

The UK’s ability to rearm and decarbonise is increasingly dependent on Chinese-controlled supply chains:

• Defence – Over 80% of global rare earth processing – essential for missiles, radar, and fighter jets – is controlled by China.
• Green Transition – China dominates 70% of lithium refining and over 80% of solar panel manufacturing, both critical to the UK’s carbon-neutral goals.

Implication – This is not interdependence – it is strategic leverage. The UK’s national security and energy transition are vulnerable to geopolitical coercion.

Conclusion

The threat China poses to the United Kingdom has been evident for years. China is the defining strategic challenge of the twenty-first century, and for Britain, it is a direct and growing threat. It appropriates our ideas, undermines our industries, attempts to reshape global power to its advantage, and holds the means to throttle our rearmament and our energy transition.

As things stand, China is Britain’s greatest adversary.