PanamaTimes

Thursday, Mar 13, 2025

UK spy chief says rise of China world's top security issue

UK spy chief says rise of China world's top security issue

The head of Britain’s cyber-intelligence agency on Tuesday accused China of trying to “rewrite the rules of international security,” saying Beijing is using its economic and technological clout to clamp down at home and exert control abroad.

Jeremy Fleming, director of GCHQ, said that despite war raging in Europe since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Beijing’s growing power is the “national security issue that will define our future.”

In a rare public speech to the Royal United Services Institute think tank, Fleming alleged that Beijing’s Communist authorities want to “gain strategic advantage by shaping the world’s technology ecosystems.”

“When it comes to technology, the politically motivated actions of the Chinese state is an increasingly urgent problem we must acknowledge and address,” Fleming said. “That’s because it’s changing the definition of national security into a much broader concept. Technology has become not just an area for opportunity, for competition and for collaboration, it’s become a battleground for control, for values and for influence.”

He argued that the one-party system in Beijing seeks to control China’s population and sees other countries “as either potential adversaries or potential client states, to be threatened, bribed or coerced.”

Ahead of the speech, a Chinese official in Beijing said that China’s technological development is aimed at improving the lives of Chinese people and does not pose a threat.

“These allegations have no factual basis at all,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said. “Clinging to the so-called China threat and provoking confrontation benefits no one and will eventually backfire.”

Relations between Britain and China have grown increasingly frosty in recent years, with U.K. officials accusing Beijing of economic subterfuge and human rights abuses.

British spies have given increasingly negative assessments of Beijing’s influence and intentions. Last year the head of the MI6 overseas intelligence agency, Richard Moore, called China one of the biggest threats to Britain and its allies.

In 2020, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson followed the United States in banning Chinese tech firm Huawei as a security risk, ordering it to be stripped out of the U.K.’s 5G telecoms network by 2027.

Fleming warned that China is seeking to fragment the infrastructure of the internet to exert greater control. He also said China is seeking to use digital currencies used by central banks to snoop on users’ transactions and as a way of avoiding future international sanctions of the sort imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Fleming argued that China’s BeiDou satellite system — an alternative to the widely used GPS navigation technology — could contain “a powerful anti-satellite capability, with a doctrine of denying other nations access to space in the event of a conflict.”

Fleming warned that the world is approaching a “sliding doors” moment in history — a reference to the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow film in which a woman’s fate hinges on a seemingly trivial moment.

He called on Western firms and researchers to toughen intellectual property protections and for democratic countries to develop alternatives that can prevent developing nations from “mortgaging the future by buying into the Chinese vision for technology.”

He said the world’s democracies can’t afford to fall behind in cutting-edge fields such as quantum computing, and warned of a potential weakness over semiconductors, the critical chips used in everyday electronics. Taiwan — which China regards as a breakaway province to be reclaimed by force if necessary — is a world leader in their production.

“Events in the Taiwan Straits — any risk to that vital supply chain — have the potential to directly impact the resilience of the U.K. and global future growth,” Fleming said.

Fleming also addressed the war in Ukraine, saying Russia is running short of weapons and Ukraine’s “courageous action on the battlefield and in cyberspace is turning the tide.”

“Russia’s forces are exhausted,” he said. “The use of prisoners as reinforcements, and now the mobilization of tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts, speaks of a desperate situation.”

GCHQ, formally known as the Government Communications Headquarters, is one of Britain’s three main intelligence agencies, alongside MI5 and MI6. It did not disclose the sources of its intelligence on China and Russia.

Newsletter

Related Articles

PanamaTimes
0:00
0:00
Close
The ICC’s retaliation on behalf of drug traffickers against Philippine President Duterte, who took a stand against them and shielded 100 million Filipinos from the drugs-death trade—overlooking the reality that every triumph carries its own price.
Mark Carney Selected as Leader of Canada's Liberal Party, Poised to Assume the Role of Prime Minister
Pope Francis Displays Signs of Recovery, Yet His Hospitalization Persists.
Trump Administration Unveils Self-Deportation App for Undocumented Immigrants
Trump Administration Plans New Travel Ban Including Afghanistan and Pakistan
Global Scam Syndicate Capitalizes on Fraudulent Celebrity Advertisements to Deceive Thousands
Devastating Passing of 20-Year-Old American Bodybuilder Sparks Health Worries
Microsoft to Sunset Skype in May, Prioritizing Teams as Communication Evolves
Katy Perry Set to Join All-Female Crew for Blue Origin Flight
Apple Resolves iPhone Dictation Bug That Linked 'Racist' to 'Trump'
Proposal Introduced for $250 Bill Featuring Donald Trump
Research Examines Possible Connection Between COVID-19 Vaccines and Post-Vaccination Syndrome
Latin America News Update: Gatherings, Legal Conflicts, and Economic Developments
Vatican Declares Pope Francis' Health Status as 'Critical'
Mexico Suggests Constitutional Amendments to Protect Sovereignty Following U.S. Terrorist Labels on Cartels
Tequila Sector Faces Oversupply Challenge as Agave Prices Fall Sharply
Pope Francis Continues His Hospital Stay While Doctors Treat Complicated Infection
AI Giants Contest Nvidia's Supremacy with Emerging Chip Innovations
California's CalExit Movement Grows Momentum Amid Political and Economic Discourse in the State
Trump Asserts BRICS 'Is Finished' In Light of Tariff Threats
CPJ Report Indicates Highest Number of Journalists Killed in 2024
Climate change presents considerable threats to worldwide cocoa production.
Apple Releases Critical Security Update Following Vulnerability Reports
Justin Bieber Sparks Concern as New Footage Raises Health Fears
Trump Administration Directs Admiral to Leave Official Residence in Three Hours
US Confiscates Second Aircraft Associated with Maduro's Government
The Trump administration is considering El Salvador's proposal to accommodate U.S. prisoners.
Trump Wins Again as Canada Agrees to Strengthen Border Security
Wall Street Journal Criticizes Trump's Trade War with Canada and Mexico
Trump Freezes Tariffs on Mexico After Agreement on Border Security
Nearly 96% of New Cars Registered in Norway in January Were Electric
Marco Rubio Urges Panama to Limit Chinese Influence Amid Canal Dispute
Apple Surpasses Revenue and Earnings Expectations, But iPhone Sales Disappoint
Bill Gates Reflects on Past Mistakes and Acknowledges Yuval Noah Harari's Insight
Trump Imposes Emergency Tariffs on Colombia Following Immigration Dispute
Musk and X Intensify Legal Battle Over Advertising Boycott, Suing Nestlé, LEGO, and Shell
Trump: Canada Should Become the 51st U.S. State
U.S. President Trump Asserts Intent to Reclaim Panama Canal Amid Rising Geopolitical Tensions
Panama Rules Out Negotiations With US Over Control of Canal
The 'Chinese Pearl Harbor' on U.S. Tech: DeepSeek's Launch Triggers Market Collapse
Key Takeaways from the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos
The Trump Era 2: A Time of Dramatic and Profound Change
Five Billionaires on Track to Break One Trillion Dollar Wealth Barrier
Bill Ackman Praises Social Media Platform X as 'The New Media'
California Wildfires Set to Become Costliest in U.S. History
Chief Justice Roberts Warns Against Threats to Judicial Independence
Generation Z Faces Scrutiny Over Workplace Readiness
Democrats Call on Biden to Protect Controversial Temporary Protected Status Program
Trinidad and Tobago Declares State of Emergency as Murder Rates Surge
Migrant Children Abandoned at U.S.-Mexico Border
×