Spy Trial Collapse Highlights Shift in UK–China Relations Over a Decade

In October 2015, David Cameron hosted Xi Jinping. However, London’s view of Beijing has since gradually become more skeptical.

A general view of the Chinese Consulate General in Manchester, England, on Dec. 14, 2022. Cameron Smith/Getty Images

The recent collapse of the trial of two men accused of spying for China has highlighted how relations between London and Beijing have shifted in the last decade.

Along with questions about the degree of Beijing’s influence in the inner corridors of Westminster, at the heart of the recent controversy was whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime should be labeled an “enemy” of the United Kingdom or merely a strategic “threat.”