Britain’s ‘failure’ to wake up from China ‘threat’ has put us at risk for years to come, top MPs warn

BRITAIN'S failure to wake up to threat from China has put us at risk for years to come, the top spy watchdog has said.

A bombshell report from Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committee slams ministers for serious failings and ignoring warnings about the risks from the rogue nations. 

Rishi Sunak is now under huge pressure from top MPs to formally designate China a "threat" after the MI5 chief insisted it's our "central intelligence challenge for the next decade. 

And the MPs conclude that the government has no proper joined up strategy on China at all.

The scathing report finds Britain’s intelligence community is "playing catch up" in their response to threats as they spent years ignoring the risk of the growing power and were too focused on the short term.

They say China now poses an existential threat to liberal democracy and they fear a "nightmare scenario" where the nation steals our blueprints and exerts their influence at every step.

MPs also warned that China is using Britain to become a world leading nuclear supplier - and by allowing them to play a part in investing, we are effectively "ceding control to the CCP" and their goverment.

They said: "It is unacceptable to the Government to still be considering Chinese involvement in the UK's Critical National Infrastructure."

China has penetrated every part of the UK economy and ministers were too willing to accept cash from them no questions asked, they say.

The Chinese state intelligence operarion is "almost certainly the largest in the world " with hundreds of thousands of officers targeting the UK and its interests "prolifically and aggressively".

It is a huge challenge for MI5 and MI6 to properly cover them all, they say.

We are just below the top priority target of America due to our closeness.

The report says the resource has been "completely inadequate" and the goverment is "failing to deploy a whole of goverment approach".

It warned too many academics were "happy to simply take the money" and turn a blind eye to concerns that China was stealing "dual use" technology that can be used for military purposes.