The suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down by a US fighter jet
(Picture: REUTERS)Britain takes the threat from China “deadly seriously”, a Government minister said on Thursday as a review was being carried out into whether Beijing is targeting the country with spy balloons.
Health minister Neil O’Brien stressed that the Government had “changed our posture” towards China given its more “expansionist” foreign policy strategy.
His comments came after a former MI6 chief said the UK must “wake up” to the threat posed by China’s challenges to global security.
Sir Alex Younger, who headed Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service between 2014 and 2020, said countries in the West are under the “full press of Chinese espionage”.
Asked on LBC Radio if the UK is taking the threat from China sufficently seriously, Mr O’Brien said: “We absolutely do need to take it seriously.
“The spying balloons that we have seen over America show you a more expansionist and more concerning China.”
Mr O’Brien, who co-founded Parliament’s China Research Group and who has been sanctioned by Beijing, added: “I’m glad that the current Government, the current Prime Minister, does take this deadly seriously as an issue.
“We have changed our posture on this a lot and I have been very reassured by that.”
US fighter jets shot down a 200ft balloon, believed to be a Chinese spying aircraft, on February 4 after it had been tracked for a week flying over the US and Canada, including over a number of sensitive military sites.
Three other unidentified objects were then downed within days by the US, one off the coast of Alaska, one over Canada, and one over Lake Huron, one of the great lakes that divides the north-east of the US from Canada.
Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has been charged with reviewing the UK’s own air security measures in the wake of the incidents.
He said that he is “certainly confident” the UK could deal with similar flying objects.
Rishi Sunak has stressed that RAF Typhoon fighter jets are on standby to shoot down any Chinese balloon that was deemed a threat to the UK.
Sir Alex also warned China that it had made a “deep mistake” in underestimating the impact of the diplomatic row triggered by the suspected spy balloon missions, stressing that “trust is plummeting to zero” between Washington and Beijing.
