Britain must work with China, but there are a “whole series of security threats”, the foreign secretary has admitted.
Yvette Cooper on Friday declined to say whether she has seen a dossier outlining China as a threat to Britain's national security.
But she added the country “poses threats to UK national security”.
It comes after the UK's most senior prosecutor said a case involving two men accused of spying for China collapsed because evidence could not be obtained from the Government referring to China as a national security threat.
Charges against Christopher Cash, 30, and Christopher Berry, 33, who both deny the allegations, were dropped last month prompting criticism from ministers and MPs.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, said the Crown Prosecution Service had tried to obtain the evidence for “many months" but statements did not meet the threshold to prosecute.
Ms Cooper defended the Government’s approach, telling the BBC: “We know China poses threats to UK national security.”
She added: “I am deeply frustrated about this case, because I, of course, wanted to see it prosecuted, but ministers were not involved in any of the evidence that was put to the Crown Prosecution Service or the Crown Prosecution Service’s independent decisions.”
Asked whether China was a “friend or foe”, Ms Cooper told LBC: “We’ve been clear, there’s a whole series of security threats that have come from China, for example, things like transnational repression, for example, things like cyber threats and attacks and industrial espionage, and so on.
“They are also, of course, an important trading partner, and they’re somebody that we need to work with on things like climate change.
“But where there are national security threats, we need to take them immensely seriously and respond to them, and we continue to do that.”
The case against the two men accused of spying collapsed because, while there was sufficient evidence to prosecute at the time charges were brought in April 2024, a precedent set by another case earlier this year raised the threshold needed to convict people under the Official Secrets Act, Mr Parkinson said.
China would have had to have been labelled a "threat to national security" at the time of the alleged offences, he added.
Sir Keir Starmer, who previously held the Director of Public Prosecutions job, said his Government could only draw on the previous Tory administration’s assessment, which dubbed China an "epoch-defining challenge".
