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British MPs will be put on alert on Monday against the threat of cyber attacks from Beijing ahead of this year’s British general election, after several China hawks targeted Westminster.
Oliver Dowden, deputy prime minister, will brief MPs on the cyber threat from China and is expected to announce retaliation, including possible sanctions, according to government sources.
The news comes as another Chinese company considers investing in a new gigafactory in the UK, producing batteries for electric vehicles, despite ministerial concerns that Britain will become “overly dependent” on Chinese technology.
Britain’s tense relationship with Beijing will take a new turn at lunchtime on Monday, when four members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China – which takes an aggressive stance – will receive a security briefing on cyberattacks by related individuals or entities to the Chinese state.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Tory leader, Tim Loughton, former Tory minister, Stewart McDonald, Scottish National Party MP and Lord David Alton, a cross-party peer, will be briefed by parliament’s head of security, according to government officials.
Downing Street declined to comment, but senior Westminster officials believe the briefing – followed by Dowden’s statement to MPs on Monday afternoon – will warn of a wider cyber threat from China, as well as targeting a handful of parliamentarians.
Duncan Smith told the Financial Times: “The UK government has been very soft on China. The United States has sanctioned about 12 officials in Xinjiang and 42 officials in Hong Kong, all high-level people in the Chinese regime.
“The UK has only sanctioned three people in Xinjiang and none in Hong Kong – and we ran the place. It’s incredible.”
Conservative MPs are expected to urge Lord David Cameron, the foreign secretary, to take a tougher line on China at a meeting of the backbench 1922 committee on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, Chinese battery company EVE is in early-stage talks to invest in a plant in the UK, according to British officials involved in plans for a new gigafactory at Coventry Airport, confirming a Sunday Times report.
While an investment would further boost the UK’s domestic supply of electric car batteries, crucial to the survival of the car industry, it would also increase the country’s reliance on Chinese technology at a time of rising tensions between China and the West.
Envision, which is Chinese, owns the AESC business that makes batteries for Nissan in Sunderland and will supply batteries for Tata’s new gigafactory in Somerset.
Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, has previously warned that the UK must not become “overly dependent” on Chinese battery technology.
A Government spokesperson said: “We will never compromise on our national security and will continue to strengthen the security and resilience of our infrastructure and identify risks within our supply chain to protect the UK.”
The West Midlands site, which is currently a functioning airport, has struggled to attract potential buyers, as both Tata and Britishvolt have moved onto the site previously. Criticisms included the fact that the area is landlocked and does not have sufficient electricity, a critical element in battery production.
It’s unclear whether EVE has carmakers in the UK lining up to buy its batteries. The inability to secure orders led to the collapse of start-up Britishvolt last year.
EVE is already building several battery factories across Europe, including one in Hungary that will supply BMW.
BMW’s Mini plant in Oxford will start producing electric models later in the decade, but has not announced where it will buy the batteries. The company, which declined to comment, is not involved in EVE discussions in the UK.
A spokesperson for the West Midlands Gigafactory project, set up to attract investment to the site, said the company was “in discussions with a number of global battery manufacturers but these remain confidential”.
The site has been a pet project of Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, who is up for re-election in May.
Street said: “While I will not comment on ongoing commercial negotiations, it is no secret that we have long earmarked Coventry Airport as a future gigafactory site. It is the only site in the UK to have planning permission to become a gigafactory and we are working immensely to bring it to life.”