Tisdall: China has set bear trap for Keir Starmer – and our naive PM is walking straight into it

Simon Tisdall for The Guardian: …in terms of Britain’s security and democracy, the global order and national self-respect, the price of doing business with this predatory authoritarian regime, in uncertain hope of future, dependency-creating economic, financial and tech benefits, is too high – and potentially undermines UK sovereignty. Starmer risks walking into a bear trap in Beijing like the one he blundered into this year in Washington set by Donald Trump, another powerful authoritarian bully.

China’s hostile regime is Britain’s undeclared enemy. The threat it poses takes many forms. Warnings about espionage, cyber-attacks and intimidation of exiled dissidents are heard almost daily. Yet another hack was revealed on Friday, this time at the Foreign Office, reportedly by China. MI5 says businesses, parliament and MPs are routinely targeted by Chinese intelligence agents. Yet a strange reluctance to act is discernible in Whitehall…