An international alliance of China-sceptic legislators has warned that UK policy towards Beijing is "beset by incoherence" and undermined by a shortage of senior expertise, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), which brings together members from all major UK parties, conducted an audit of British engagement with Beijing. It found that past attempts at cooperation have often exposed the UK to interference without delivering promised benefits.
Ipac's report states that "successful UK engagement with China must always be framed by an understanding that the PRC (People's Republic of China) is an inherently hostile authoritarian state that does not share our values". The power imbalance inherent in dealing with the world's second-largest economy is worsened by "muddled policy and weak engagement", the audit adds.
The report cites a specific failing. A visiting Chinese delegation observed that no one engaging with Beijing at senior government level was a Mandarin speaker or had significant experience living in China. While British expertise exists, Ipac says it remains "siloed and not translated into capability".
Former security minister Tom Tugendhat endorsed the report as "a clear-eyed and realistic take on the defining foreign policy problem of this century, filling a gap left by years of policy neglect".
The audit recommends clearly defined red lines around critical infrastructure, frontier technologies and human rights. It also proposes better institutional coordination, strengthened use of national security tools, and diversified supply chains. Emerging technologies such as AI pose new risks through disinformation and surveillance capabilities, the report warns.
Climate remains identified as a low-risk area for cooperation. The report acknowledges that meeting climate targets "will not be met without cooperation with China, and accepting medium-term dependence. This means accepting supply chains tainted by forced labour and unfair trade practices".
Kerry Brown, a former diplomat and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, welcomed recognition that better language skills are needed. However, he stressed that "the critical issue now is lived experience" in China. Brown noted concerns that some Ipac members promote security-focused narratives that discourage such engagement, when "you can't teach really important things in a classroom; you can only go and learn them through daily life".