Senior Conservative MPs have urged the government to take a harder line against China following a series of cyber-attacks targeting British democratic institutions and politicians. The National Cyber Security Centre confirmed that Beijing-backed hackers were responsible for breaches of the Electoral Commission, accessing personal data of around 40 million voters, and a separate surveillance operation on four MPs critical of China.
The Chinese ambassador is to be summoned to account for the attacks. The UK has imposed sanctions on two individuals and a front company linked to the cyber-espionage group APT31, which is associated with China's Ministry of State Security. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told MPs that Beijing's attempts to interfere had been unsuccessful and that the government had bolstered cyber-defences, vowing 'swift and robust actions' against any future threats.
The four MPs whose email accounts were targeted – Iain Duncan Smith, Tim Loughton, Stewart McDonald, and Lord Alton – are all members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a hawkish cross-party group. Duncan Smith said they had been subjected to 'harassment, impersonation and attempted hacking' but would not be 'bullied into silence'. They called for China to be formally labelled a threat to UK security.
The US and New Zealand supported the UK's moves. US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the case showed the lengths China would go to target critics. However, some Tory MPs criticised the response as too slow and weak. Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick called the sanctions 'derisory', while Foreign Affairs Committee chair Alicia Kearns demanded a comprehensive sanctions regime and import controls.
Foreign Secretary David Cameron raised the attacks directly with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The disclosures mark a new low in UK-China relations, previously characterised as a 'golden era' under Cameron's premiership.
