While Britain argues over spies, China is quietly building the power to bring nations to their knees

The failure to bring alleged Chinese spies to justice has sent shockwaves around Britain. But despite everyone blaming each other for this miscarriage of justice, the threat from China goes far beyond traditional espionage.

Max Anderson | Head of Communications

Look beyond Britain’s borders to the upcoming negotiations between China and Trump, and you see in plain sight the real threat China poses.

In the build-up to the negotiations, China has announced it will be introducing new restrictions on critical mineral exports to America.

On the face of it, this might seem a rather unimportant announcement. As we have seen, Trump himself is more than willing to use tariffs to pressure nations into favourable trade agreements.

But critical minerals are - as the name implies - essential for not only ensuring a functioning country, but also protecting it from hostile nations. They are used in everything from military equipment and essential technologies to energy production and transmission.

And China has spent the last few decades creating a stranglehold over critical minerals.

China currently owns the mining rights for 70% of the world's rare earth minerals, whilst processing 90% of these minerals in China itself. Effectively, when China decides to squeeze critical mineral exports, there is no alternative for America or the UK but to back down or risk essential sectors grinding to a halt.

This is particularly true of cobalt, for which China controls 69% of the production and 90% of processing. An essential component of everything from wind turbines, batteries for energy storage and mobiles, or military equipment like missiles and jet engines.

This is without mentioning the significant human rights abuses, ranging from slavery to child labour, throughout China’s critical minerals supply chains.

This is not the first time a nation has had a near monopoly on a vital export. But there is a difference between owning a monopoly and using it to bully nations into favourable trade agreements.

If China is willing to use critical minerals to hold nations to ransom, then we need to act fast to end its dominance.

Unfortunately, the simple answer of just abandoning critical minerals like cobalt is not the answer. There is no way our economy, energy, or military can just pivot away to new, unforeseen technologies, let alone abandon new innovation.

For example, many have argued we should abandon renewable energy like wind turbines, which rely on cobalt. But this is illogical and won’t protect Britain. Renewable energy provides quickly-built and domestically produced energy.

Ditching them would simply leave us reliant on hostile petrostates like Russia for gas, undermining the security that diversity of energy supply provides from renewables, nuclear and North Sea oil and gas.

Nor would it resolve the crisis other industries - such as the military, technology companies, and transport - would face if critical minerals supplies are cut off.

China needs to be recognised as a threat, and we need to start taking action now to reduce our reliance on, and diversify away from, their critical mineral supply chains.

It is bad enough that the Chinese spy case has been let down by a failure to recognise the truth, but if we continue to put our heads in the sand, Britain, our allies and the rest of the world will be left dependent on China for solar panels, batteries, and many other future energy technologies.

But we will need real, international cooperation between Britain and our allies. This is not something Britain can tackle by itself in a vacuum.

By working together with our allies, we can sign critical mineral partnerships to allow unrestricted trade of critical minerals wherever they lie. This will mean that the majority of critical minerals are not just flowing to China, whilst creating the opportunity for processing to be brought to Britain or Western allies.

The Chinese spy case scandal shows we aren’t taking the threat of China seriously. But China has been working far longer and smarter than just spying; it is building the ability to bully nations at will.

Unless we take action, our nation will be left exposed with our energy, military, and vital technologies grinding to a halt.

First published by LBC. Max Anderson is Head of Communications for the Conservative Environment Network.