China urges UK to ‘immediately stop creating trouble’

The UK should “immediately stop creating trouble” and “stop anti-China political manipulations”, a spokesperson for the country’s embassy in the UK has said.

In a statement released on Tuesday, an embassy spokesperson said that “anti-China clamours made by a handful of UK MPs” have “revealed their twisted mentality towards China” and accused them of trying to “smear China” and “undermine normal personnel exchanges between China and the UK”.

It comes as the Government has been facing renewed pressure to designate China a threat to national security after the naming of an alleged Chinese spy with close links to the Duke of York.

Yang Tengbo, who denies wrongdoing, was named on Monday as the individual who has been banned from the UK, and is said to have been a “close” confidant of Andrew.

The statement attributed to an embassy spokesperson and released on the embassy’s website said: “We always believe that a sound and stable China-UK relationship is not a one-sided favour but what meets the common interests of both sides.

“The UK side must have a right perception of China, see the historical trend clearly, and handle its relations with China on the basis of mutual respect, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit.

“We urge the UK side to immediately stop creating trouble, stop anti-China political manipulations, and stop undermining normal personnel exchanges between China and the UK.”

It also accused a “handful of UK MPs” of “anti-China clamours”, and added: “They have done nothing but fully revealed their twisted mentality towards China, as well as their arrogance and shamelessness.

“This is a typical case of a thief crying ‘catch thief’. What they are really up to is to smear China, target against the Chinese community in the UK and undermine normal personnel exchanges between China and the UK.

“We strongly condemn this.”

On Monday, parliamentarians urged the Government to implement the foreign influence registration scheme (Firs) proposed by the last administration, and place China in the “enhanced” tier which would allow more scrutiny.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader and one of Parliament’s most vocal China hawks, told MPs on Monday that Mr Yang was “not a lone wolf”.

Pointing to a report by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, he said there were 40,000 members of China’s United Front Work Department who had “penetrated every sector of the UK economy”.

Security minister Dan Jarvis insisted the Government would use “every tool at our disposal” to protect the UK, but said Firs had not been ready to be implemented when Labour came to power, despite claims to the contrary from the opposition.

He told MPs: “Since coming into office, we have ensured that there are now more people than ever working on Firs implementation.”

But he was unable to say whether China would be placed in the “enhanced” tier when Firs was introduced in the summer of 2025.

The row over alleged spying comes after a period of improving relations between London and Beijing since Labour came to power.

Sir Keir Starmer became the first prime minister to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping when the two spoke at the G20 summit in Brazil last month, while Foreign Secretary Lammy made a two-day visit to China in October.

But the Prime Minister admitted he was “concerned about the challenge that China poses” during a press conference on Monday.