A Cyber Attack On The UK From China Can Now Be Expected

Five years ago, then British Prime Minister David Cameron was celebrating a "golden era" in UK-China relations, bonding with President Xi Jinping and signing off on trade deals worth billions, but now Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government are concerned about the effects of their decision to cancel Huawei's access  to the UK national 5G network..

Discussions between Beijing and London over Hong Kong have become more acrimonious. Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is about has finally recommended the removal of Huawei equipment from the national telecoms network. Shockwaves over the Chinese origins of the coronavirus are spreading around the world. 

There is now a real concern this may result in China launching a full-fledged hacking attack on the UK.

In the worst-case scenario of a cyber attack, hackers may damage the UK's computer networks, which would lead to phone and power blackouts and bring hospitals and businesses to a standstill, according to the sources. These events in Hong Kong have significant consequences for international relations.

China has been flexing its muscles for a long time, but the West has been slow to realise it. China is the new imperial power in Africa. It has in large parts taken over the continent, raping it for its natural resources and embedding itself in all sorts of different countries. It has only one aim; the furtherance of Chinese power and influence on the continent.

Consider how China is behaving towards India over the disputed border region. It continues to threaten Taiwan. It treats its minority Uighur Muslim population in a manner reminiscent of how the Jews were treated in Nazi Germany and now it has imposed a new security law on Hong Kong in defiance of the terms of the 1985 Joint Declaration. Laughably, China justifies it on the basis that it was a ‘declaration’ and not a ‘Treaty’. 

There will be consequences of the U turn over Huawei and one of them will be that UK universities will be targeted by the Chinese government. Many university courses are now totally reliant on Chinese students and their fees for their existence. China will probably stop its students from coming to the UK and that gap in funding for UK universities will be impossible to fill. In 2014-15 there were 89,500 Chinese students at UK universities. Since then, the number has got up by a third to 120,000.

There are numerous danger signs of China's malicious intent to engage in cyberwar against its opponents, not least Australia which has suffered a wave of 'unattributed attacks' only a few weeks ago. In February, the government had announced that the UK would, with conditions, allow Huawei to assist in building the 5G network in Britain, now all that is changing.  

Iain Dale:       Nation:     Economic Times: 

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