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influence operations as civil society and the media.* But others have noted that China’s leverage over the UK economy is equally, if not more, important.
Politics
Since 2012, the UK governments under prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May have progressively toned down criticism of China over human rights and Beijing’s obligations toward the United Kingdom to respect the Sino-British agreement on Hong Kong. While this may be in part due to the United Kingdom’s relatively weakening position, these changes have coincided with Chinese efforts to influence British foreign policy.
Influence activities by China have included not only apparent attempts to engage
in cyberattacks on the Scottish Parliament and on think tanks specializing
in international security issues with connections to government but also reports
of intimidating messages sent to politicians seen as enemies of China.* China has
also denied UK politicians, such as members of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and the deputy chair of the Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission, Ben Rogers, access to Hong Kong to investigate human rights issues there.°
China has also acquired influence by offering jobs to former politicians, potentially creating dependencies. Former prime minister David Cameron is a case in point. Cameron distanced himself from the Dalai Lama in 2013 and embraced a Golden Era of UK-China ties in 2015 while still in office, positioning himself as China’s best friend in Europe.® Once out of office, Cameron accepted a senior role in the UK-China Fund, a major infrastructure fund connected with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.’
Academia and Civil Society
The Chinese government can exercise influence in the United Kingdom through a number of mechanisms: repression in China that affects China-related work, such
as the new Foreign NGO Management Law; remote cybermonitoring; the creation of new institutions it controls; collaborations based on Chinese funding, with strings attached; control of Chinese nationals in the United Kingdom; and reporting on or pressuring domestic institutions and individuals in the United Kingdom. The targets of such influence activities include the communities these actors serve: students, clients, and the wider public.
Chinese scholars and students in the United Kingdom (as of March 2018, some 170,000) register with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association UK, which organizes political education events and is supposed to monitor its members in accordance with its “patriotic” mission.® Reportedly, students at some universities in
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